Representative Matt Gaetz (R., Fla.) accused Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) of being “out of compliance” with a deal he struck to secure the speakership, and is demanding a motion to remove him from the position.
The Florida lawmaker, who helped whip opposition to McCarthy’s speakership bid earlier this year, said that a stopgap spending bill designed to forestall the looming government shutdown would be an “automatic trigger” for a motion to vacate, which requires a majority of the House to vote in favor of removing the sitting speaker.
“It’s put up or shut up time not just for McCarthy but for the 20 [Republican representatives],” Gaetz said during a speech on the House floor, referring to an agreement he helped broker in January to make McCarthy the Speaker of the House on his 15th attempt. “Because if we aren’t serious about bringing him into compliance with the deal, then we were never really serious about the deal in the first place.”
Gaetz went on to threaten to hold a vote on the motion to vacate every day for the remainder of McCarthy’s speakership.
In January, holdout Republicans, including Andy Biggs and Eli Crane of Arizona, Bob Good of Virginia, Matt Rosendale of Montana, and Gaetz, voted “present” during McCarthy’s 15th bid for speaker, lowering the threshold needed for McCarthy to secure his seat. Throughout the previous rounds of bargaining, McCarthy repeatedly offered concessions to the GOP holdouts, including the establishment of a Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government and lowering the number of representative votes needed to trigger a new leadership vote.
During the 14th round of voting, as pressure mounted, McCarthy even personally confronted Gaetz on the House floor, trying to appeal to the Florida representative to help push his speakership bid over the line. While Gaetz eventually helped McCarthy’s bid, the two have a tense relationship. In April, the speaker accused Gaetz of “putting people in jeopardy” for his criticism of Republicans unsupportive of then-President Donald Trump after the January 6 attack on the Capitol.
“And he [Gaetz] doesn’t need to be doing this. We saw what people would do in the Capitol, you know, and these people came prepared with rope, with everything else,” McCarthy said in an audio clip obtained by the New York Times.
Despite McCarthy’s attempt to placate the hardline members of his caucus on Tuesday by opening an official impeachment inquiry into the Biden family amid accusations of influence peddling, uncertainty lingers over a looming government shutdown.
In August, the House Freedom Caucus, which Gaetz is a part of, vowed to shut down the government if the forthcoming funding package failed to include the “House-passed ‘Secure the Border Act of 2023’ to cease the unchecked flow of illegal migrants, combat the evils of human trafficking, and stop the flood of dangerous fentanyl into our communities.”
The vocal concerns of the Freedom Caucus led Representative Ken Buck (R., Colo.) to bemoan the “perfect storm” conditions confronting Speaker McCarthy over the coming weeks. “On the one hand, we’ve got to pass a continuing resolution,” the Colorado representative told MSNBC anchor Jen Psaki on Sunday. “We also have the impeachment issue. And we also have members of the House, led by my good friend, Chip Roy, who are concerned about policy issues. They want riders in the appropriations bills, amendments in the appropriations bills that guarantee some type of security on our Southern border.”
“So you take those things put together, and Kevin McCarthy, the speaker, has made promises on each of those issues to different groups. And now it is all coming due at the same time.”
Buck’s words were prescient.
Gaetz underscored on Tuesday the need for McCarthy to get back onside or face risking his speakership: “The path forward for the House of Representatives is to either bring you into immediate total compliance or remove you, pursuant to a motion to vacate the chair.”