On Sunday morning, in the wake of the passage of the stopgap resolution funding the government for another 45 days without new aid for Ukraine, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) expressed his intention to try to remove House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).
During an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Gaetz argued that McCarthy was in “brazen, material breach” of the agreement he made with House Republicans during the speaker election back in January. As such, Gaetz intends to file a “motion to vacate the chair’ this week, in accordance with House rules.
Democrats have claimed that passage of the stopgap resolution is a victory for them; however, they had previously attempted multiple procedural delays to postpone the vote. When voting went forward, Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) literally pulled a fire alarm in the hopes of stopping it. It didn’t work.
“I think we need to rip off the Band-Aid,” Gaetz said. “I think we need to move on with new leadership that can be trustworthy.”
No House Speaker has ever been ousted before, but rules adopted during the speaker election would make it significantly easier to do by making it possible for just one House member the ability to initiate a vote to remove the speaker.
McCarthy has the support of a large majority of House Republicans, but because the GOP holds such a slim majority, he may need votes from some Democrats to keep his job.
“The only way Kevin McCarthy is speaker of the House at the end of this coming week is if Democrats bail him out,” Gaetz said.
Countering that, Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., spoke of Gaetz’s “diatribe of delusional thinking.” Lawler told ABC’s “This Week” that Gaetz was acting for “personal, political reasons.”
The rules of the House allow for any single lawmaker — Democrat or Republican — to make a “motion to vacate the chair,” essentially an attempt to oust the speaker from that leadership post through a privileged resolution.
McCarthy shrugged off Gaetz’s intentions during an appearance on ABC’s “Face The Nation,” describing Gaetz’s efforts to oust him as “nothing new.”
“Yes, I’ll survive,” McCarthy insisted, before accusing Gaetz of being more interested in getting TV interviews than doing something. “He wanted to push us into a shutdown, even threatening his own district with all the military people there who would not be paid only because he wants to take this motion. So be it, bring it on. Let’s get over with it. And let’s start governing. If he’s upset because he tried to push us into shutdown, and I made sure government didn’t shut down. Then let’s have that fight.”
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