Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., talks to reporters after a closed-door meeting with Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., and other House Republicans after Gaetz filed a motion to oust McCarthy from his leadership role, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
The House is set to vote Tuesday on ousting Speaker Kevin McCarthy from his office amid ongoing dysfunction in the Republican majority.
Brooklyn Democrat and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, meanwhile, said the Democratic caucus would support the motion to vacate the chair, but called upon House Republicans to settle their own “civil war” themselves.
McCarthy had insisted he would not cut a deal with Democrats to remain in power as he faces a challenge from his hard-right critics through the “motion to vacate” from Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, a strident critic allied with Donald Trump. It would take the support of only a handful of Republicans from his slim majority to remove McCarthy as speaker if Democrats vote in favor alongside the conservative rebels.
If the motion to vacate is successful, the House would be thrown into the kind of chaos experienced in January, when it took 15 votes over three days and nights for McCarthy to be elected speaker. Republican hardliners like Gaetz continually opposed McCarthy throughout the process in order to wrangle various concessions from him to advance their own agenda.
As of Tuesday afternoon, McCarthy’s fate was deeply uncertain. In a closed-door meeting with the Republican caucus that morning, the Californian told his colleagues: Let’s get on with it.
“If I counted how many times someone wanted to knock me out, I would have been gone a long time ago,” McCarthy said at the Capitol after a private morning meeting.
It’s a stunning moment for the embattled McCarthy that serves as the most severe challenge yet, a potential punishment sparked by his weekend decision to work with Democrats to…
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