Kevin McCarthy became the first Speaker of the House in American history to be formally voted out of the position on Tuesday thanks to a right-wing rebellion among Republicans. Eight of them joined all the Democrats to force out the Speaker hours after an earlier vote signaled the end was near.
“The office of Speaker of the House of the United States House of Representatives is hereby declared vacant,” Steve Womack, who presided over the dramatic session, announced following the vote. Thanks to a post–September 11 law designed to ensure continuity in government, the temporary Speaker (third in line to the presidency) is Patrick McHenry, a North Carolina Republican.
Despite the historic humiliation, McCarthy, 58, had initially said he was planning to run for the post again, promising a repeat of the January spectacle that took 15 ballots for him to win — but he later reversed himself and announced he would not stand again for speaker. Then, as now, the opposition was led by Matt Gaetz, who filed what’s known as a “motion to vacate” to start the process of dethroning the longtime California Republican.
A hush broke over the chamber when the first vote clearing the way for McCarthy to be removed was finally gaveled to a close. In a room that normally has a low buzz of background noise even when only two members are there, it was deathly quiet. In the silence, Gaetz walked up the center aisle of the chamber and then over toward the Democratic side of the room. There, he stood to manage the debate that immediately began about whether to remove McCarthy. Each side took its turn with McCarthy defenders like Republican whip Tom Emmer praising the Speaker as having “overperformed expectations.” In contrast, Gaetz gibed at those critics who argued that dethroning McCarthy would just lead to greater chaos. “Chaos is Speaker McCarthy. Chaos is somebody we cannot trust with their word,” he said.
It was a predictable outcome given Gaetz said in January that McCarthy would be in a “straitjacket” as Speaker given the conditions he negotiated with the hard right of the GOP conference to win their support. In the nine months since, McCarthy has been wriggling out of that straitjacket, leading to today’s historic vote. In the spring, he relied on Democrats to raise the debt ceiling after conservatives rebelled. More recently, he’s pushed through votes on aid to Ukraine and over the weekend to keep the federal government open, albeit until mid-November, while relying on the minority party as well.
“If you throw a Speaker out who has 99 percent of their conference, kept government open, and paid the troops, we’re in a really bad place for how we’re going to run Congress,” McCarthy said on Tuesday morning, seemingly resigned to his fate.
While Gaetz and his allies succeeded his short-term goal of ousting McCarthy, more Republicans spoke with utter disdain about the rebel leader from Florida. Dusty Johnson, South Dakota’s at-large representative, called Gaetz “a diabolical saboteur” who was motivated by “middle-school grudges” against McCarthy. Stephanie Bice, representing Oklahoma’s fifth district, said Gaetz was “using the American people as pawns in his narcissistic game of charades.” (Steve Womack, a McCarthy ally, did say “actually I kinda like Matt personally,” though, “I like a lot of people I have strong disagreement with.”)
Democrats, meanwhile, simply had zero desire to bail out McCarthy, whom they viewed as fundamentally dishonest and untrustworthy.
Republicans expected McCarthy to try again, but he bowed out in a brief meeting of House Republicans. Speaking to reporters after, he delivered his own eulogy. “I don’t regret standing up for choosing governance over grievance. It is my responsibility. It is my job,” he said, before criticizing those who ousted him.
“They are not conservatives,” McCarthy said of the breakaway Republicans who he accused of recently voting against spending cuts because they were not deep enough. He singled out Gaetz personally: “It had nothing to do about spending,” he said, adding, “It was all about getting attention.”
