Kevin McCarthy has been ousted as speaker of the House Here's what happens next.

Table Of Content

• Law that ended single-family zoning is struck down for five Southern California cities
• House Democratic Caucus consensus
• Who wasn't present for the vote?
• Trump avoids wading into Republicans' power struggle over McCarthy vote
• ‘How the hell does that even happen?’ McCarthy exits Congress amid confusion over who can run to replace him

The House voted on Tuesday to oust Representative Kevin McCarthy from the speakership, a move without precedent that left the chamber without a leader and plunged it into chaos. Republican Rep. Greg Murphy told CNN's Manu Raju that Kevin McCarthy should endure the fight to maintain his speakership for as long as it takes and called Gaetz's motion-to-vacate an "asinine gesture." Earlier Tuesday, the House failed to table – or block – the effort to oust him by a vote of 208 to 218 with 11 Republicans voting against the motion to table. “It is now the responsibility of the GOP members to end the House Republican Civil War,” Jeffries said, announcing the Democratic leadership would vote for the motion to oust the speaker. McCarthy told lawmakers in the evening he would not run again for speaker, putting the gavel up for grabs.

Law that ended single-family zoning is struck down for five Southern California cities

With a perilously slim 222-seat Republican majority in the 435-member House and facing a handful of defectors, McCarthy is working furiously to reach the 218 votes typically needed to become speaker. The increasing chances of a messy floor fight over the speaker’s gavel on Jan. 3, Day One of the new Congress, is worrying House Republicans, who have been meeting endlessly in private at the Capitol in an effort to resolve the standoff. Good, the chairman of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus, is expected to draw more opposition ahead of his primary in June. Last month, Republican Main Street Partnership, a group backing centrist House Republicans, announced its super PAC would engage in the race to defeat Good, The New York Times reported. The group, which was founded 2022, announced an effort Wednesday targeting members of Congress “who have voted against funding for enhanced border security in the past,” it said in a news release. At one point, an outraged McCarthy ally, Rep. Garret Graves, R-La., accused Gaetz and his cohorts of sending fundraising efforts on their motion to vacate.

Matt Gaetz moves to oust Kevin McCarthy as House speaker - CNN

Matt Gaetz moves to oust Kevin McCarthy as House speaker.

Posted: Mon, 02 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

House Democratic Caucus consensus

The 216-to-210 vote reflected the deep polarization in Congress and raised questions about who, if anyone, could muster the support to govern an increasingly unruly House G.O.P. majority. A handful of far-right Republicans broke with their party and voted to remove Kevin McCarthy from his leadership post. Murphy said he doubts, however, that a fight over the speakership would last long enough to risk a government shutdown and predicted McCarthy would still be speaker next week. With McCarthy removed from his leadership position, House Republicans will now look to find a replacement that can appease both far-right members and moderates in the party.

Who wasn't present for the vote?

A bloc of hardline conservatives, led by Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, have continued to thwart McCarthy, voting against key priorities of GOP leadership and repeatedly throwing up roadblocks to the speaker’s agenda. This bitter feud between Gaetz and McCarthy has roots dating back to McCarthy's initial ascent to the speakership. In January, Gaetz took to the House floor to accuse McCarthy of engaging in questionable financial dealings, a narrative that continued to simmer. As a concession to Gaetz and the 19 other Republicans who initially opposed his speakership, McCarthy altered House rules to enable any member to call for a snap vote on his ouster—which ultimately led to his failure to keep the position. Under House rules, McCarthy had until Wednesday to take up the resolution that Gaetz, a conservative Florida Republican and Donald Trump loyalist, filed Monday night.

Republican Party

Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy was removed as House speaker following a revolt from within his own party and went into the vote without a crucial ally who helped propel him to leadership in January — Donald Trump. During the hourlong meeting in the Capitol basement, McCarthy invoked Republican Speaker Joseph Cannon, who more than 100 years ago confronted his critics head-on by calling their bluff and setting the vote himself on his ouster. With the government running out of money again in a little over a month, the House has instead ousted the speaker for the first time in the chamber’s history — with no one to replace him.

House Democrats don't particularly like Gaetz, and voting to table the motion to vacate arguably would have been a vote to avert an extended period of chaos in the House that won't necessarily benefit them politically. Aside from a small group of staunch progressives, it's possible that rank-and-file Democrats could've taken a different approach. It's unclear how soon after McCarthy's ouster the Republican majority will begin the process for electing a successor.

Kevin McCarthy wins House speakership on 15th vote

So as a fiscal conservative – I'm angry – as a woman – I am deeply frustrated,” she said. Like with the effort to oust McCarthy that played out Tuesday, Gaetz was at the center of the dispute over the California Republican's quest to win the speakership in the first place. He angered some of his Republican colleagues when he voted "present" on the 14th round, blocking McCarthy's bid and forcing another ballot. "It's hard enough as a leader, especially with a four-seat majority, but then you start having the infighting here," Burgat said. "Pending such election, the member acting as speaker pro tempore may exercise such authorities of the Office of Speaker as may be necessary and appropriate to that end," the rules state. The requirement of a list appears to have originated with the 108th Congress that convened in January 2003.

But when Republicans retook the chamber with a slim majority, McCarthy capitulated to a group of hardline Republicans' demands that the measure be made available to any single member of the chamber. The House, under interim speaker Rep. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, will now have to hold speaker elections once again, and it's not clear where that will lead. “The problem with my friend from Ohio’s argument, many of the bills he references as passed are not law. It’s hard to make the argument that oversight is the reason to continue when it looks like failure theatre,” he said. “We are ready, willing and able to work together with our Republican colleagues, but it is on them to join us,” Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told the press on Tuesday morning.

McCarthy's removal marked the first time in American history that a speaker of the House was removed through a motion to vacate. The vacancy started a process to elect a speaker that began following an eight-day recess. WASHINGTON (AP) — Speaker Kevin McCarthy was voted out of the job Tuesday in an extraordinary showdown — a first in U.S. history, forced by a contingent of hard-right conservatives and throwing the House and its Republican leadership into chaos. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., filed a motion to vacate resolution, but unlike this one, it was "non-privileged" and never came up for the vote.

Watch the moment House votes to oust Kevin McCarthy as speaker - CNN

Watch the moment House votes to oust Kevin McCarthy as speaker.

Posted: Tue, 03 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

On Tuesday, moments before the House began voting on the effort led by Gaetz to remove McCarthy from his role, Trump issued a broad statement about the internal squabbling on Truth Social. The former president, who is currently preoccupied with his civil fraud trial in New York, purposefully did not participate in the latest fight between Republicans, multiple sources familiar with the matter told CNN. Rep. Scott Perry, one of the eight Republicans to vote to oust McCarthy, said he doesn’t have a name for who he wants to see as speaker. Some House Republicans say they are stunned and don’t know what’s next now that Kevin McCarthy is ousted as speaker. McCarthy’s fate was deeply uncertain as the fiery debate unfolded, with much of the complaints against the speaker revolving around his truthfulness and his ability to keep the promises he has made since January to win the gavel.

Some have suggested that those opposing McCarthy could simply vote “present,” lowering his threshold to win — a tactic Pelosi and Boehner used to win with fewer than 218 votes. The Freedom Caucus’ early leaders, under Mark Meadows, the former North Carolina congressman who became Trump’s chief of staff, wielded the procedure to pressure Boehner and Ryan. “It’s all in jeopardy,” he told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Friday.

McCarthy remained stoic throughout the vote Tuesday, occasionally smiling but making little eye contact with his detractors. "It is becoming increasingly clear who the Speaker of the House already works for, and it's not the Republican conference," Gaetz declared on Monday as he argued for McCarthy's removal. Removing the speaker launches the House Republicans into chaos heading into a busy fall when Congress will need to fund the government again or risk a mid-November shutdown. While McCarthy enjoyed support from most Republicans in his slim majority, eight Republican detractors — many of the same hard-right holdouts who tried to stop him from becoming speaker in January — essentially forced him out.

The deep humbling of McCarthy could be seen as cruel, a snub by fellow lawmakers whose power was made possible by the Bakersfield Republican’s years of hard work as grand strategist and campaigner in chief for the House GOP. But the drip-drip torture of prolonged balloting was so egregiously self-inflicted, so glaring in the making and so abundantly well-deserved that it is impossible to muster even the slightest bit of sympathy. Amid the historic stalemate, California Congressman Mike Garcia stopped by "The Issue Is" to take Elex Michaelson behind-the-scenes of the chaos, the negotiations, and the crucial rule changes that ultimately sealed the deal for Speaker McCarthy. Mace, a former Trump critic, ultimately reversed course and endorsed him in the 2024 GOP presidential primaries, and he returned the favor. Templeton also backed Trump in the race after she initially supported Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C. As a nonprofit organization, the group doesn’t have to disclose its donors, and it’s not clear whether McCarthy is involved in this specific effort.

He made an agreement in January regarding the way Washington would work and he violated that agreement. Eight Republicans voted with the Democrats to remove Mr McCarthy, including Reps Andy Biggs, Ken Buck, Tim Burchett, Eli Crane, Bob Good, Nancy Mace, Matt Rosendale, and Mr Gaetz. The House of Representatives on Tuesday afternoon narrowly voted to remove Speaker Kevin McCarthy from his position. She has written for outlets including the Washington Examiner, Daily Signal and Alexandria Times.