3rd October, 2023
Lawmakers in the US House of Representatives have begun debate on a motion to oust the Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Efforts to stop the debate on the motion failed on Tuesday.
A right-wing rebel group led by Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz filed a formal motion on Monday night to eject the speaker, to which McCarthy replied: “Bring it on”
According to BBC, Gaetz, who has long challenged McCarthy’s speakership, made the move because of a “secret deal” he believes McCarthy made with Democrats to keep the government from shutting down
The spending measure that stopped a shutdown left out additional funding for Ukraine because Gaetz and other ultra-conservatives insist the US can no longer afford to fund its defence against Russia
“Keeping the government open and paying our troops was the right decision… If I have to lose my job over it, so be it,” said McCarthy on Tuesday
Already, the House has begun a one-hour debate on the motion to vacate the speaker’s chair. A vote on the resolution to remove the speaker would require a majority vote to succeed and oust McCarthy from his leadership post.
This is a rare procedural maneuver. The last time the House took the floor for a vote challenging a Speaker of the House was in 1910, the CNN reports.
During the debate Gaetz said that leadership under the Republican leader has been chaotic.
Chaos is Speaker McCarthy. Chaos is somebody who we cannot trust with their word,” he said.
Gaetz said that the one thing the White House, House Democrats and the Republican conservative caucus have in common is that they cannot rely on McCarthy.
“Kevin McCarthy said something to all of us at one point or another, that he didn’t really mean and never intended to live up to,” Gaetz said.