Dhe end was painful. On Tuesday afternoon, the Bureau of the House of Representatives in Washington called a vote on the motion to remove the speaker. Each member of the first chamber was now called individually: a tough process – and torture for Kevin McCarthy. At 4:46 p.m. the result was announced: 216 votes for the overthrow; 210 against. The Presidium then declared the speaker position vacant. McCarthy’s term lasted only nine months. For the first time, a speaker was removed via a vote of no confidence.
The showdown between Florida’s Matt Gaetz and McCarthy began at noon on Tuesday. The Republican representative from Florida sat alone in the back rows of his caucus, waiting for his motion to be called. The spokesman for a group of hardliners from the right wing of the parliamentary group submitted a motion to remove McCarthy from office on Monday evening. McCarthy responded belligerently: “Try it.” Gaetz did.
On Tuesday, MPs first voted on a motion from the Republican parliamentary group leadership to reject Gaetz’s vote of no confidence. Eleven Republicans did not follow McCarthy. Since the Democrats also voted unanimously against the proposal, McCarthy experienced his first defeat – initially only in a procedural vote. However, according to many parliamentarians, she anticipated the result of a subsequent vote on the vote of no confidence.
Gaetz said after the vote on the motion that sought to prevent his attempted overthrow: When he is accused of causing chaos, he responds that McCarthy is chaos because his promises cannot be trusted.
There had been hectic activity in the Capitol all morning. McCarthy repeatedly left his office near the Rotunda and walked over to the Speaker’s Lobby to have confidential conversations. He said publicly that Gaetz could find four or more frondeurs to overthrow him. Asked whether he would be willing to make a deal with the presidential party in return for votes from the Democratic camp, he said there could be no formal power-sharing alliance of centrists from both factions. He is a Republican. It’s about the institution.
This should mean that if Democrats decide to prevent his removal, their motive must be to avoid chaos and prevent damage to Congress as a constitutional body. Of course, with this remark he did not rule out informal agreements with the Democrats below the threshold of formal cooperation.
Minority leader Hakeem Jeffries had predicted a possible deal with McCarthy over the weekend: “One step at a time.” The group then met on Tuesday afternoon. The MPs discussed for more than two hours. Jeffries wanted to build consensus. At the weekend, party leftists spoke out clearly in favor of not helping out McCarthy. Some centrists flirted with the option, partly because they believed they could demand political concessions from McCarthy.
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