The ousting of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was historic

Neal’s Bounds on Replacing the Speaker: “What is the matter?” A Spanberger and Jeffries Questioning McCarthy

Richard Neal said McCarthy’s change to the rules of who could propose a resolution to remove the speaker puts the fringe in charge of the House. Neal said he had a “Machivellian position” about that decision in January: “Once you seal the deal, you have to take the consequences.”

McCarthy did an interview on Tuesday saying he didn’t need help from the Democrats so she didn’t see a reason to aid him.

“I believe Kevin McCarthy is a person who does damage to this institution and our democracy, and he is among the most unprincipled, unfaithful people I have encountered in my life, and that is why I am Moderate Democrat,” Spanberger told reporters.

His comments followed a lengthy “open mic” meeting of House Democrats in the basement of the Capitol complex Tuesday. One by one lawmakers got up and had to make a decision on what to do in caucus, and one by one Democrats bashed the speaker’s record and refusal to reach across the aisle.

“We are ready, willing and able to work together with our Republican colleagues but it is on them to join us to move the Congress and the country forward,” Jeffries told reporters in the Capitol.

At issue, Gaetz said, is McCarthy’s refusal to adhere to promises he made to hard-line House Republicans earlier this year to win their support for the speakership in the first place — and McCarthy’s reliance on Democratic votes to narrowly avoid a government shutdown over the weekend.

While Gaetz is the face of the rebellion and the de facto leader of the opposition Republicans who voted against McCarthy, the majority of members of the Republican conference in the House stood by their elected leader.

Some Republicans tried to convince Gaetz to stop the vote because of their own unhappiness with McCarthy, but they failed, as NPR has reported.

The Case against McCarthy: Demography Can’t Save a Bad Place if the Speaker is Vacant and the Government is Shut Down

If the resolution does pass, the Clerk of the House will refer to a list of people who can act as speaker pro tempore in the absence of speaker. That list is kept secret and will only be made public in the event that the speakership is vacant.

McCarthy believes we’re in a bad place if the government is shut down and the speaker is thrown out.

The charge against him was led by Gaetz, who did not support McCarthy for speaker. He cited McCarthy’s decision to pass a short-term spending bill with Democratic support as evidence he had not “fulfilled his promises” to conservatives.

McCarthy is accusing Gaetz of harboring a grudge over his refusal to quash a congressional ethics complaint against him over allegations of sexual misconduct and illegal drug use that emerged in 2021, telling CNBC on Tuesday morning that Gaetz has “personal things in his life that he has challenges with.”

“Will I get removed because four or five Republicans joined with all the Democrats? That’s the question here,” he said. “If 98% of the conference wants you to be speaker, but you create a Congress where four people can determine if they work with the other side, how strong is the continuity of the government itself?”

Emerging from their weekly caucus meeting on Tuesday morning, Reps. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., and Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., told reporters that House Democrats agreed to vote together against saving McCarthy in any way.

Leaving the House: Bringing up the ugly side of the GOP, in the aftermath of Biden’s impeachment investigation into President Biden

“There is reason after reason to just let Republicans deal with their own problems,” Jayapal said. “Let them wallow in their pigsty of incompetence and inability to govern.”

The House Democrats did not take a position. Some have suggested in recent days that they would be willing to help McCarthy — who directed an impeachment inquiry into President Biden just last month — but not without a cost.

Before Tuesday’s meeting, the House minority whip said she was not aware that McCarthy had offered any concessions.

“We have to wait and see if or when Kevin McCarthy offers something but it’s difficult to trust someone who walked away from a deal that was endorsed by 314 of us in the bipartisan way,” she said.

Clark noted that the GOP infighting — which she described as a “full-scale civil war” — has an impact on “people at home who are worried about the GOP’s attacks on Social Security, on our public schools, on the freedom of reproductive rights in this country.”

“We will look at everything we do in the House and ask what is the best way to get things done for the American people.”

McCarthy was elected speaker in January. He managed to finally secure the gavel, in part by agreeing to demands from a fringe group of Republicans to change the rules on who can propose a resolution to remove the speaker — allowing just one member to do it.

McCarthy said he wouldn’t run for speaker again. Tom Emmer told reporters that he wouldn’t run. And House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said he does not have any announcement to make at this time.

He said he was shocked on one hand, and surprised on another, considering the dynamics in the House.

“And I think that’s what’s most concerning of all, is that they did this out of retribution for him going ahead and funding the U.S. government,” Bonjean said, in reference to the short-term spending bill that was agreed to at the weekend.

Van der Waals: Hakeem Jeffries is a good speaker but a failure in his role as a republican-majority speaker

It’s a point echoed by Miller-Meeks, who said her Republican colleagues asked Gaetz who he wanted to replace McCarthy as speaker, but didn’t get a name.

Democrats say they plan to put forward Hakeem Jeffries for speaker, but he will probably fall short again in the Republican-majority House.

“The reason he failed is because too often he capitulated to his opponents, and ultimately lost his credibility and his trust as a result of that, in the hope that ultimately his opponents would somehow be loyal to him,” he said. He undermined his credibility as a speaker by doing that.

He told reporters that he wanted to do the job with a smile, regardless of the underestimates or not.

But whoever is elected as the 56th speaker of the House will have to find a way to fund the government and work with Democrats, knowing the more conservative wings of the party can try to take them down in a single vote.

He said that there are many Republicans that could do a good job. If Republicans were able to throw out their leader at a will, it would be virtually impossible for many of them to ever do the job.