Matt Gaetz in historic move to oust House Speaker Kevin McCarthy
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A Republican hardliner aligned with Donald Trump filed a rare motion to oust Kevin McCarthy as the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Matt Gaetz, who has clashed with McCarthy for months, introduced a “motion to vacate”, triggering the most serious showdown yet within the Republican party
No US Speaker has ever been ousted by such a so-called motion to vacate.
Matt Gaetz, a representative from Florida, entered his resolution from the House floor, later telling reporters McCarthy “doesn’t have my support anymore, and he doesn’t have the support of a requisite number of Republicans to continue as the Republican Speaker.”
“Bring it on,” McCarthy quickly responded on social media..
The move came just days after Mr McCarthy formed a compromise with Democrats to avert a government shutdown.
The stopgap measure would continue funding for another 45 days to allow Mr McCarthy’s fractious Republican conference to agree on spending legislation.
Mr Gaetz claimed Mr McCarthy had allowed Joe Biden to take his “lunch money in every negotiation.”
The threat of being deposed has hung like a Sword of Damocles over Mr McCarthy since he was elected as Speaker in January.
In order to gain enough support form Republicans to become speaker, Mr McCarthy agreed to a rule change that would allow any one member of the House to call a snap vote to oust him amid stiff opposition from Mr Gaetz and 19 other Republican hardliners.
In a surprise move on Saturday, Mr McCarthy sidestepped conservatives and turned to the Democrat minority at the eleventh-hour to force through a stopgap spending bill.
The measure passed with the support of 209 Democrats who joined 129 Republican centrists in agreeing to fund the government for another 45 days.
To win Democrat support, Mr McCarthy ditched conservative demands for deep spending cuts and immigration restrictions.
His one concession to the Republican right was to rule out further funding for Ukraine.
However, Mr Gaetz, 41, accused Mr McCarthy of engaging in a “secret side deal with Joe Biden” to continue funding Ukraine.
“Bring it on,” Mr McCarthy quickly responded. However, the vote puts on public display the growing chasm between the Republican party’s moderate and conservative factions.
Earlier on Monday, Mr McCarthy, 58, said a vote to oust him would be “disruptive to the country” but suggested he welcomed an early resolution to Republican in-fighting.
“I want to win the vote so I can finish the job for the American people,” he said. “There are certain people who have done this since the day we came in.”
The resolution to vacate the speakership requires a majority to pass, but it is unclear how many Republicans planned to join Mr Gaetz.
Even some of Mr McCarthy’s fiercest GOP critics have talked down the prospect of ousting him in recent days.
The speaker will need to address the motion within two legislative days, but could do so even sooner.
It is not yet clear if Democrats would come to Mr McCarthy’s aid.
Historically, the party in opposition votes against a speaker. But Democrats may be reluctant to punish Mr McCarthy for his decision to work with them on avoiding a shutdown - and may fear his potential Republican replacements.
The Democrats could simply skip the vote altogether or vote “present” to make it easier to keep Mr McCarthy in post without affirmatively voting for him.
However, Mr McCarthy has provoked outrage from Democrats over his decision to greenlight an impeachment inquiry into Mr Biden.
Progressives, including New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have said they would vote to oust him.
“I don’t think we give up votes for free,” she told CNN over the weekend.
