House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has been voted out of the job in an extraordinary showdown, a first in U.S. history.
The 216-210 vote was forced by a contingent of hard-right conservatives and threw the House and its Republican leadership into chaos.
McCarthy’s chief rival, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, brought forward the “motion to vacate,” drawing together more than a handful of conservative Republican critics of the speaker and many Democrats who say he is unworthy of leadership.
The next steps are uncertain, but there is no obvious successor to lead the House Republican majority.
Georgia’s congressional delegation voted along party lines on the measure, with the state’s nine Republicans voting against and five Democrats voting for McCarthy’s ouster as speaker.
The high-stakes showdown forced by McCarthy’s chief rival, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, brought together more than a handful of conservative Republican critics of the speaker and many Democrats who said he was unworthy of leadership.
The House then opened an extraordinary floor debate, unseen in modern times, on a motion to “vacate the chair” — something that has not happened in Congress in a century.
It’s a stunning moment for the battle-tested McCarthy and serves as his most severe challenge yet, a punishment fueled by growing grievances but sparked by his weekend decision to work with Democrats to keep the federal government open rather than risk a shutdown.
McCarthy, of California, insisted he would not cut a deal with Democrats to remain in power — not that he could rely on their help even if he had asked.
Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a letter to colleagues that he wanted to work with Republicans, but he was unwilling to provide the votes needed to save McCarthy.
“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.
As the House fell silent, Gaetz, a top ally of Donald Trump, rose to offer his motion. Gaetz is a leader of the hard-right Republicans who fought in January against McCarthy in his prolonged battle to gain the gavel.
“It’s a sad day,” Republican Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma said as the debate got underway, urging his colleagues not to plunge the House Republican majority “into chaos.”
But Gaetz shot back during the debate, “Chaos is Speaker McCarthy.”
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 had made since January to keep his majority satisfied with his leadership.
But a long line of McCarthy supporters, including Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, a founding leader of the conservative Freedom Caucus, stood up for him: “I think he has kept his word.”
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.
At the Capitol, both Republicans and Democrats met privately behind closed doors ahead of what would be a historic afternoon vote.
Behind closed doors, McCarthy told fellow Republicans: 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 the morning meeting.
McCarthy insisted he had not reached across the aisle to the Democratic leader Jeffries for help with votes to stay in the job, nor had they demanded anything in return.
During the hour-long meeting in the Capitol basement, McCarthy invoked the last 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. Cannon survived that take-down attempt, which, until now, was the first time the House had actually voted to consider removing its speaker.
McCarthy received three standing ovations during the private meeting — one when he came to the microphone to speak, again during his remarks, and lastly when he was done, according to a Republican at the meeting and granted anonymity to discuss it.
At one point, there was a show of hands in support of McCarthy, and it was “overwhelming,” said Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., a member of the House Freedom Caucus.
Gaetz was in attendance, but he did not address the room.
Across the way in the Capitol, Democrats lined up for a long discussion and unified around one common point: McCarthy cannot be trusted, several lawmakers in the room said.
“I think it’s safe to say there’s not a lot of goodwill in that room for Kevin McCarthy,” said Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass.
“At the end of the day, the country needs a speaker that can be relied upon,” said Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif. “We don’t trust him. Their members don’t trust him. And you need a certain degree of trust to be the speaker.”
Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Ill., said: “McCarthy got himself in this mess. It’s up to McCarthy to get himself out.”
“We are always the adults in the room,” said Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia. “McCarthy said he doesn’t need our help. He has made his bed.”
Removing the speaker would launch the House Republicans into chaos as they try to find a new leader. It took McCarthy himself 15 rounds in January over multiple days of voting before he secured the support of his colleagues to gain the gavel. There is no obvious GOP successor.
Trump, the former president who is the Republican front-runner in the 2024 race to challenge Biden, weighed in to complain about the chaos. “Why is it that Republicans are always fighting among themselves,” he asked on social media.
One key McCarthy ally, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., took to social media urging support for “our speaker” and an end to the chaos that has roiled the Republican majority.
The snap vote this week comes as Republicans are trying to make progress on a key demand from Gaetz and others, which is to move ahead with the 12 annual spending bills and prevent another stopgap measure like the one Congress approved last weekend hours before the government shutdown deadline.
Republicans are upset that McCarthy relied on Democratic votes Saturday to approve the temporary measure to keep the government running until Nov. 17. Some would have preferred a government shutdown as they fight for deeper spending cuts.
But Democrats are also upset at McCarthy for walking away from the debt deal that he made with Biden earlier this year that already set federal spending levels as he emboldened his right flank to push for steep spending reductions.
WABE News contributed to this report.
