Speaker Kevin McCarthy was ousted Tuesday by a handful of rebel Republicans, throwing the House into chaos and escalating the GOP’s battle over the future of the party.
A handful of hardline conservatives voted with Democrats to remove Mr. McCarthy from the speaker’s chair. The historic move — a first in the history of the House — triggers votes for a new speaker that will continue until a lawmaker can win a majority of support.
The House will be governed by a temporary speaker, chosen from a list provided to the House Clerk earlier this year by Mr. McCarthy for use in the event of an emergency. The temporary speaker’s authority will be limited to presiding over the speaker election.
The House will hold votes until it can elect a new speaker — a process that will center on Mr. McCarthy vying to win reelection to the post, according to sources close to Mr. McCarthy.
The most likely successor aside from Mr. McCarthy is his top deputies, Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana or Majority Whip Tom Emmers of Minnesota.
Mr. McCarthy’s ouster was orchestrated by GOP firebrand Rep Matt Gaetz, 41, who, along with other Republicans, said Mr. McCarthy did not uphold conservative priorities in the fiscal 2024 funding fight and did nothing to tame runaway spending.
“Our current debt and our spending trajectory is unsustainable. We need a speaker — ideally somebody who doesn’t want to be speaker and hasn’t pursued that at all costs, for his entire adult life, who will meet the moment and do everything possible to fight for the country,” Rep. Bob Good, Virginia Republican, said.
The vote followed a heated debate. Republicans booed Mr. Gaetz, who they forced to address lawmakers from the Democratic side of the chamber.
Mr. Gaetz reminded lawmakers he takes no campaign cash from lobbyists and said he’s defending the rights of every American to afford a decent life. He said Washington must change to make that happen.
“You’re no martyr!” one Republican shouted at Mr. Gaetz, who shot back, “Boo all you want, you who have hollowed out this town and have borrowed against the future of our future generations. I’ll be happy to find my political operation through the work of hardworking Americans $10 and $20 and $30 at a time and you all keep showing up at the lobbyists’ fundraisers and see how that goes for you.”
The handful of GOP rebels voted with all Democrats to “vacate the chair,” a parliamentary move that strips Mr. McCarthy of the speakership. Earlier, 11 Republicans and all Democrats voted to block Mr. McCarthy’s bid to kill Mr. Gaetz’s resolution to vacate the chair.
The vast majority of the Republican conference supports Mr. McCarthy. Yet the GOP’s razor-thin majority and faction of conservative fiscal watchdogs left him with a tenuous grip on the gavel as he navigated spending and debt limit deals this year with the Democrat-led Senate and White House.
Mr. McCarthy, 58, was elected speaker in January but only after a protracted fight with Mr. Gaetz of Florida and a group of nearly two dozen Republicans who initially opposed him. They relented after a history-making 15 rounds of voting. Since becoming the speaker, Mr. McCarthy faced continued threats from Mr. Gaetz and others on his right flank who demanded significant spending cuts to government funding to combat the nation’s climbing debt and deficit.
Many of Mr. McCarthy’s supporters tore into Mr. Gaetz for orchestrating what they viewed as embarrassing turmoil in the GOP-led House.
Some predicted Republicans will fail to agree on a candidate who can win the nearly unanimous support that would be needed to become speaker, potentially forcing the party to cut a power-sharing deal with Democrats, who control slightly less than half of the floor votes.
“If this motion carries the house will be paralyzed,” Rep. Tom McLintock, California Republican, said in a floor speech ahead of the vote to oust Mr. McCarthy. “We can expect week after week of fruitless ballots while no other business can be conducted. The Democrats will revel in Republican dysfunction and the public will rightly be repulsed. It’ll end when the Democrats are able to enlist the rump caucus of Republicans to join a coalition to end the impasse. This house will shift dramatically to the left and will effectively and Republican House majority that the voters elected in 2022.”
The removal of Mr. McCarthy raises questions about the ability of anyone to lead a GOP majority that is so thin that a handful of Republicans can depose the speaker.
Mr. McCarthy called up the vote on his own fate Tuesday following days of back-and-forth jabs with Mr. Gaetz.
Mr. McCarthy called Mr. Gaetz’s efforts to oust him “personal,” but the move to force him out highlights a growing divide within the party on its future, much of it intertwined with former President Donald Trump, the prohibitive favorite in the 2024 GOP presidential race.
Mr. Trump, facing 91 criminal charges in four separate cases, last month called on Republicans to reject any government funding bill that does not include border security, spending cuts and provisions to curtail the Justice Department, which he believes has been targeting him for political purposes.
“UNLESS YOU GET EVERYTHING, SHUT IT DOWN!” Mr. Trump posted on social media last month. “Close the Border, stop the Weaponization of ‘Justice,’ and End Election Interference — WE MUST HAVE HONEST ELECTIONS. It’s time Republicans learned how to fight!”
Republicans who voted against Mr. McCarthy said they did so because of runaway government spending that they believe the GOP must do everything to stop, even if it involves a temporary government shutdown.
Rep. Tim Burchett, of Tennessee, said in a video message posted on social media he decided to vote against Mr. McCarthy because the speaker allowed Congress to take an August vacation despite the government’s $33 trillion debt and the looming shutdown deadline.
“There’s no urgency,” he said. “Enough is enough. I hate losing Kevin McCarthy as a friend but I worry about losing our country.”
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.
• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washingtontimes.com.
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.