Gaetz, Trump, Scalise: Who's who in House speakership fight

Tuesday’s ouster of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was a remarkable moment in American politics — and the next several weeks could be just as wild, as Republicans search for a new speaker and the federal government faces another potential shutdown the week before Thanksgiving.

Below are some of the main players in the speakership fight.

The instigator: Rep. Matt Gaetz

The young and ambitious Florida Republican resisted McCarthy’s election to the speakership in January and continued to be his main nemesis in the ensuing months. A pro-Donald Trump hard-liner, Gaetz was furious that McCarthy struck a deal with Democrats to avert a shutdown.

Some say that Gaetz, who has been embroiled in numerous scandals since taking office, wanted revenge because he believed McCarthy was responsible for a House ethics investigation against him. Others believe he is trying to raise his profile ahead of a 2026 gubernatorial run in Florida.

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Whatever the case, Gaetz has shown a willingness to buck Republican leaders and make enemies — as long as it keeps him in the limelight.

The contenders: Reps. Steve Scalise, Jim Jordan, Kevin Hern and Elise Stefanik

It’s hard to imagine that anyone could want the speakership after watching the humiliation of McCarthy. But Washington is full of ambitious men and women who have convinced themselves that they alone can fix it.

Scalise, a Louisiana Republican, was one of McCarthy’s top deputies and is currently undergoing treatment for lymphoma. However, he says he’s healthy enough to become speaker of the House and has declared his candidacy for the speakership.

Ohio’s Jordan has also announced that he’s running for the job. The longtime congressman is one of the most conservative members of the House and is helping to lead the impeachment inquiry into President Biden.

For his part, Gaetz said this week that both Jordan and Scalise are good fits for the speakership.

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Meanwhile, New York Rep. Elise Stefanik — an erstwhile moderate who became a staunch Trump ally — has also been mentioned as a possible candidate for speaker. Stefanik, 39, is the highest-ranking woman in the House Republican leadership, a role she took after she and her colleagues ousted Rep. Liz Cheney from her post for criticizing former President Trump.

And Kevin Hern, an Oklahoma congressman who leads a large grouping of House conservatives called the Republican Study Committee, is thought to be a likely candidate for speaker.

House Republicans are set to vote on a new speaker on Wednesday, following a Tuesday meeting in which they will hear the candidates speak.

The placeholder: Patrick McHenry

McHenry is the short, cheerful guy in a bow tie who is suddenly all over the news, with his first bang of the speaker’s gavel quickly becoming a social media meme. McCarthy appointed him as his successor and, well, here he is, serving as the acting speaker until the House elects someone else.

McHenry, a North Carolina congressman, is an old-school Republican whose calling card is fiscal restraint. In other words, he has virtually nothing in common with Gaetz and culture warriors like far-right Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. If he manages to keep the different factions in the Republican conference from devolving further into a civil war, his brief tenure will be a success.

The X factor: Donald Trump

A House speaker need not be a House member, which has presented Republicans with an intriguing possibility: nominating Trump.

Gaetz told Yahoo News back in 2021 that he would nominate Trump if the Republicans won back the House in November. He voted for Trump instead of McCarthy in January, though only as a protest.

Now a Trump speakership is a possibility, however outlandish. On Thursday, Greene told reporters that Trump is considering visiting Capitol Hill next week, and that she hopes he will be a candidate for speaker.

Trump is already running for president, and he is facing multiple state and federal indictments, which would all be serious impediments to him taking the job. Also, while the House is technically allowed to choose a nonmember as speaker, it has never happened before, and Trump has never shown real interest in the job.

The Democrats

Hakeem Jeffries, a New York Democrat, succeeded Nancy Pelosi to lead House Democrats earlier this year. He has repeatedly sought to contrast House Democrats — for the most part, united on the issues — with their rancorous Republican counterparts, who both he and Biden have branded as MAGA extremists.

Jeffries had a working relationship with McCarthy, but they were hardly friends. And he saw no need to save McCarthy, which would have only required a handful of Democratic votes. Under his direction, no Democrat voted against Gaetz’s motion to vacate, thus ensuring McCarthy’s demise.

Even if some centrists wanted to make a deal with McCarthy, progressives are savoring the moment, their views of the Republicans seemingly confirmed. Defending the Democrats’ decision to let McCarthy fall, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted that the “GOP no longer felt responsibility to govern — just to placate their extremist wing and internal politics. Sometimes the adults need to say ‘no.’”

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• Yahoo News: Why didn’t Democrats rescue Speaker McCarthy?