It may be difficult to follow the legislative particulars of Matt Gaetz‘s bid to unseat Kevin McCarthy, but this much is clear: the beleaguered California Republican is screwed.
Early Tuesday afternoon, the House voted to proceed with Gaetz’s motion to oust McCarthy as House Speaker. 11 Republicans voted with Democrats against McCarthy’s wishes.
With those numbers in mind, it’s difficult to see how the spineless speaker keeps his job. Assuming all Democrats vote together, Gaetz just needs five Republicans, including himself, to vote against McCarthy.
“I think we’re unified in saying … we’re not here to bail out Kevin McCarthy,” said Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, one of the top Democrats in the House.
Minority leader Hakeem Jeffries instructed the Democratic caucus to vote “yes” on the resolution as well.
In the end, McCarthy was ousted 216-210 with eight Republicans voting with every Democrat to remove him as Speaker of the House.
He served a total of 269 days before being removed.
It’s been a tumultuous nine-month speakership for McCarthy, who dug his own political grave to become Speaker in the first place. After a historic 15 rounds of voting, he caved to the far-right, and made it so any congressperson could file a motion to oust him at any time.
Gaetz, his chief antagonist, finally took him up on his offer.
While the Florida lawmaker is leading a small minority of Republicans, they hold enough power to throw Congress into complete disarray (even more than usual)! That’s propelled some members of the caucus to threaten him with expulsion.
The House Ethics Committee is currently investigating the anti-LGBTQ+ congressman for an array of alleged party boy antics, including accusations he had sex with an underaged girl.
“No one can stand him at this point,” a source told Fox News. “A smart guy without morals.”
That’s also an apt description for McCarthy, though the jury is out on his intelligence. He’s spent the last year alienating seemingly every House Democrat, despite the inevitably he would need them.
Instead of fostering relationships, McCarthy launched an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden and sent secuirty footage of Jan. 6 to Tucker Carlson.
McCarthy also remains loyal to Donald Trump, who’s currently sitting in a courtroom on trial in New York, and not lifting any of his fat orange fingers to help him.
Prior to Tuesday’s vote, McCarthy proclaimed he wasn’t seeking any help from Democrats. Or in other words: “You can’t fire me! I quit!”
Over the weekend, McCarthy struck a deal with Democrats to keep the government funded for 45 days, barely avoiding the catastrophic shutdown that Gaetz and his MAGA allies were intent on orchestrating. Because of that, some Republicans have called on Dems to help McCarthy out. And the response has been uniform.
“Nah.”
It is apparent Democrats are more than content watching Republicans engage in a civil war. Gaetz has spent the last couple of days lighting up McCarthy on the House floor.
Fittingly, Gaetz & Co. don’t have a replacement in mind for McCarthy, meaning the House may not have a speaker for a while which is, well, not great.
That is, unless somebody steps in to save the day.
Congress’ most shameless grifter is more than happy to play along.
We all deserve better than this. Except for McCarthy, that is.
GOP Rep. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina will now temporarily lead the House of Representatives until a new Speaker is elected.
Ronbo
Why did the Democrats vote for the House to go even further into the extreme right? Why didn’t they negotiate to secure McCarthy’s cooperation in trade for their vote of support? This is a scorched earth policy that burns EVERYONE!
This strategy of “elevating” the worst of the worst (tRump for example) to scare the public into voting for Democrats has actually backfired in every recent election. All that strategy does is it pushes Republicans further right and allows the Democrats to drift right into the same corporate policies of the Republicans.
Dear God if you think Kevin is bad, wait for the next Speaker. I understand that heir tRump is considering the Speaker’s job. Seriously, has anyone seen how low the Republicans WILL go?
Fahd
Russian propaganda.
Kangol2
Maybe Kevin McCarthy should have thought about the consequences of his actions back in January when he agreed to the insane rule changes that the MAGA nutsos like Matt Gaetz demanded, or again just a few weeks ago when he authorized the absurd impeachment inquiry against President Biden, or perhaps just this past weekend when the Democrats bailed his lousy @ss out and prevented the shutdown and he went on TV and blamed them, not his loony caucus members, or even yesterday when he could have met with Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and his top deputies to hash out a rescue plan, but instead snubbed them and now ends up making history by being ousted by a fellow Rethug.
Of course you put the onus on the Democrats, but the fact is that this is a Rethug-manufactured debacle. Matt Gaetz and his fellow goons are behind this. The Democrats didn’t “elevate” anyone; the Rethugs control the House (or purport to), but have yet again made a mockery of the very idea of their tenure by turning things into a complete debacle. So place the blame where it belongs: squarely in the lap of Don the Con’s MAGA firethrowers and nutbags, led by accused paedo Matt Gaetz. That’s where the problem lies, not with the House Democrats, at least not in this situation.
dbmcvey
Why would they keep McCarthy in? He didn’t offer anything. He broke the bargain with Biden that they struck the last time. Why should they help this liar who has no real power? Whoever comes in next is likely not to be any better.
Ronbo
So… Hillary “elevating” (her word, not mine) Heir tRump, was a good thing?!? Government is about creating solutions, not engaging in stopping solutions and racing to the bottom
This is a lost opportunity. Fahd, thinks seeking a working government is propaganda! Another half-truther!
Kangol2 thinks that seeking using leverage to get what you want is wrong. Is that only for REPUBLICANS? No.
dbmcvey is just a propagandist skipping the actual facts… what promises? Does he/she think that he can make things up like tRumP.
The thought that finding solutions is done by getting more extreme people, like tRump, as the Speaker is foolish. Extremists are on both sides. Just follow Fahd, Kangol2 and dbmcvy, We need to work smarter, not just complain. Does anyone think that the Republicans would not take advantage of a vice-versa a mess in the House; NO, they would pass Republican law and bypass the Constitution. Recall that they did a pocketish veto of our Supreme Court to later pack it with extremists – wihtout our politicians lifting a hand. How did that work for Obama and us?!?
Yooper
It’s not “embarrassing”, it’s f’ing pathetic. Queerty “authors” couldn’t write a seriously informative piece if they tried.
abfab
Yes, along with the prefix of ”OMG YOU GUYS”. Awful.
This SHIT is not written by gay boys or gay men. It’s churned out by machinery and it’s cop out.
If it’s not, I will expect the writer of this thread to chime in personally and defend it. On occasion they do pop in.
Ronbo
Add abfab to the list of our extremists who can’t even think straight. Follow lthe money, not the propaganda. A “D” is usually much better than and R; but, a heart attack is worse than a stroke. Who WANTS a heart attack!!!
Let’s work to fix the problems, first.
abfab
You’re not well.
Ronbo
But, I speak the truth – and that is more than you. This move eliminates the possibility of getting US aide to Ukraine. I guess you don’t support our government supporting Democracy, Have you ever?