In a historic first, California Republican Representative Kevin McCarthy was removed from Speakership Tuesday evening. Until a time when a new speaker is selected, North Carolina Representative Patrick McHenry will assume the position.
McHenry’s interim promotion is a result of the changes to government following the 2001 terrorist attacks in order to promote continuity of government. The position is officially called the Speaker Pro Tempore, and temporarily places McHenry third in line of succession to the Presidency.
The Speaker Pro Tempore is selected by the current speaker in secrecy, until such a time that they are needed.
McCarthy’s reign as speaker was marked for doom before it had even begun. In January, he was elected after 15 confirmation votes, another historic first for this Congress. In order to get the votes he desperately needed to be elected, McCarthy made a number of deals, the most consequential of which was a rules change.
This agreement, which McCarthy made with the hard right flank of his party, included an addition which would allow any member of congress to make a motion to vacate the chair. This is exactly what right flank leader Matt Gaetz did.
Under House Rule IX, the motion to vacate is classified as a privileged motion, meaning that once the motion is made it must be voted on within two legislative days. At approximately 2 p.m. on Oct. 3, Gaetz made the motion to vacate. Two hours later at a count of 216-210 the chair was officially vacated.
All 212 House Democrats voted in favor of the motion, including eight Republican members: Andy Biggs of Arizona, Ken Buck of Colorado, Tim Burchett of Tennessee, Matt Gaetz of Florida, Bob Good of Virginia, Nancy Mace of South Carolina and Matt Rosendale of Montana.
Before the evening vote on the House floor, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told CNN reporters “Democrats will not save McCarthy.” His party held true to that promise.
The end of McCarthy’s leadership can be attributed to burnt bridges and bad blood. Throughout his 269 day speakership, McCarthy walked on shaky ground. Between a highly united Democratic Party and a fractured GOP, he often found trouble uniting the 118th Congress on legislation.
This came to a head on Saturday during shut down negotiations. Faced with two choices, McCarthy chose to meet his hard right flank’s demands, and, according to Reuters, his proposal met nearly all of their requirements. This Included major cuts to welfare and social security. However, the proposal was rejected by Republicans, and, fearing a shutdown, McCarthy turned to his second option.
Last week, the Senate voted to approve a stop gap bill which would delay the shut down by 30 days until a time when a permanent resolution could be adopted. On Saturday night, McCarthy called an emergency vote on the House floor in order to adopt a bipartisan stopgap bill.
AP News reported that Democrats were dubious of the speaker’s offer, requesting 90 minutes in order to read over the full bill before the House vote. McCarthy denied this recess, however, during discussion, Democrats were able to delay the vote for 52 minutes while interns and staff members quickly combed through the bill.
It was passed the same night with 232 members in favor, and later signed into law by President Biden.
Heading into negotiations, the former speaker was aware of threats made by the majority’s flank, but said, “If somebody wants to remove me because I want to be the adult in the room, go ahead and try.”
Shortly after Gaetz’s motion to vacate on Tuesday, McCarthy took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to write “bring it on.”
Gaetz posted a response writing, “just did.”
It is unclear heading into the coming weeks who will be next to lead the chamber, however it is clear the decision will be an undertaking. Many members, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, have announced their loyalty for McCarthy despite his announcement that he will not rerun. Others, including Gaetz, have called for the House Majority Leader, Steve Scalise, to throw his name into the hat.
Democrats are expected to propose Jeffries as their candidate in the Speaker’s elections, just as they did in the last speaker’s elections.
This is the first time in history a speaker has been removed from the gavel in this way. Only two other times in American history has the motion to vacate ever been filed.
In 1910, Republican Speaker Joe Cannon filed a motion against himself following a revolt from his party concerning committee assignments. In an effort to prove that he still had a significant amount of support, Cannon brought the motion to the floor. This motion failed, thus proving his point.
The second time, in 2015, the motion was introduced by former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows against speaker John Boehner. The resolution was not brought to the House floor, so it did not receive privileged motions advantages and was instead relegated to the Rules Committee. Though the motion was never brought to the house floor, it was considered to have contributed to Boehner’s 2015 resignation.
During the vote, C-SPAN noted that McCarthy remained in the chamber throughout the duration with a smile on his face. Following the vote, he returned to the Speaker’s office before addressing the nation in a press conference.
“[I don’t] regret standing up for choosing governance over grievance,” McCarthy said, “It is my responsibility. It is my job.”
In regard to resignation similar to Boehner’s decision, McCarthy told the New York Times he “hasn’t thought about” it. He declined to comment further on the possibility of stepping down from his seat.
McCarthy later said, “I made history, didn’t I?” He additionally suggested that his advice for the next speaker is to “change the rules.”
White House Press Secretary issued a statement from the President in a late Tuesday press conference that he hopes the House will quickly elect a new Speaker. The President reportedly looks forward to working with the new Leader of the House to address the concerns of the American people.
Dr. Martin Claar of the university’s political science department weighed in on the conversation. In regard to the legislative branch in the coming weeks, Claar said, “It’s going to grind to a halt,” adding that “thanks to the temporary measure” which avoided shutdown, there now exists a narrow window in which the House must find a new speaker and pass a permanent budget.
According to Claar, Americans can expect “nominations and votes on the eleventh” but that it will be “a hot mess” with “no clear path forward.” With no obvious contender to replace McCarthy, Claar indicated a grave undertaking on behalf of Congress to efficiently find new leadership.
Given the deals and concessions it took for McCarthy to get elected, Claar did not feel confident that candidates who made similar deals this time around would be any safer from McCarthy’s fate. He specified, “not with the division of power… that exists.”
Too many promises to the Republican faction can be attributed to the success of the motion to vacate. He felt that, while McCarthy did fulfill some promises to the far right, including the impeachment inquiry, it was not all of them and it came too late.
When a new speaker is chosen, Claar expects the hard right flank will continue to want more than can be compromised. This includes a push for more cuts than had been in the proposal McCarthy delivered to appease the faction.
For the new speaker, Claar said, “they’re inheriting a poison chalice.”
“We’ve been moving in this direction… since the development of the tea party… for the better part of almost 20 years,” Claar said. He believes this will continue to alter the American political landscape.
Claar said, “[while] the Republican Party is using the unification of the democrats as a fundraising tool” to create a common enemy, the GOP has continued to splinter amongst itself.
These hard right candidates are “garnering enough support to be competitive,” and thus the Republican Party is “cannibalizing itself electorally.” Two Republicans, a moderate and far right, can run for the same seat but ultimately split the vote, making Democrats more likely to win seats,which Claar says is “weirdly uncharted territory for us”.
Claar felt the same principle is true for the 2024 general elections. “It seems a pretty sure fire bet [Donald Trump] will remain the nominee.”
In Claar’s opinion, this could lead to a repeat of 2020. To avoid this outcome, “something big would have to happen to shake up the Republican primary,” but the speaker’s ousting was not it.
He sees a potential for “some down ballot effects” in the state and local elections, but ultimately the greatest impact will be felt in the House, Senate, and White House.
On the evening of Oct. 3, both parties held closed-door conferences to discuss steps moving forward. However, lawmakers will be out for the next week on district visits, leaving the path forward for the next speaker ambiguous at best.
