House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) will “probably” survive an effort by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) to remove him as speaker, but he will need the help of Democrats to do it, the far-right firebrand predicted Monday, as he continued his threats against McCarthy’s leadership role over a battle centered around the narrowly averted government shutdown.
US Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL) speaks to members of the media after speaking on the House floor ... [+]
Gaetz said McCarthy is “probably right” when he says he is confident he can withstand a challenge to his speakership, he told reporters after making his case for removing McCarthy on the House floor Monday.
Gaetz has amplified his consistent threats to begin the process for ousting McCarthy over a string of grievances related to the temporary government funding bill Congress passed Saturday, hours before a government shutdown was set to take effect without a budget in place.
Gaetz said over the weekend, and again on Monday, he would bring what’s known as a “motion to vacate” some time this week, forcing a vote in the House to remove McCarthy as speaker.
The Florida lawmaker said he did not bring the motion on Monday because it’s a “fly in day” when lawmakers are returning to Washington after the weekend, and predicted McCarthy would need the help of Democrats, whom he called McCarthy’s “true coalition partner” in Congress, to save him from an ouster.
In a speech on the House floor earlier Monday, Gaetz accused McCarthy of working on a “secret side deal” for Ukraine funding with President Joe Biden after the House removed money for Ukraine from the short-term budget deal passed late Saturday that will keep the government open for the next 45 days to give lawmakers additional time to negotiate a full-year spending package (McCarthy has said he did not speak with Biden about the arrangement).
“If Kevin McCarthy works for Democrats and utilizes Democrats in order to keep power, that would be consistent with everything we’ve seen from him,” Gaetz told reporters Monday.
The House passed a 45-day budget late Saturday with bipartisan support, hours before the current fiscal year expired at midnight and the government would have shut down. Democrats voted 209-1 and Republicans voted 126-90. The Senate approved the legislation 88-9. The bill passed after Senate and House leaders agreed to strip additional funding for Ukraine from the legislation, facing a threat to reject it from Gaetz and other far-right Republicans. Gaetz for weeks has said he opposed any short-term funding bill and was instead pushing McCarthy to bring a full-year budget, that tacked on additional border security measures, up for a vote. Senators on both sides of the aisle, along with Biden, have said they hope to include additional Ukraine funding in the full-year spending plan.
Gaetz has been a chief antagonist throughout McCarthy’s speakership, leveraging Republicans’ slim majority in the House to team with other far-right members by threatening to block crucial legislation if McCarthy does not cave to their demands. Gaetz voted against McCarthy during the first 14 rounds of his historic speaker election in January, before changing his vote to “present” in the final round after McCarthy negotiated a deal with hard-right members that included a rule change requiring just one member to bring a motion to vacate.
Government Shutdown Averted: Senate Approves Last-Minute Stopgap Bill (Forbes)
House Approves Last-Minute Stopgap To Avert Government Shutdown—Leaves Out Funding For Ukraine (Forbes)