Kevin McCarthy, At Farewell Press Conference, Settles Some Scores And Offers Advice To Next Speaker: “Change The Rules” – Update
UPDATE: Kevin McCarthy spoke to reporters for nearly 50 minutes, in which he at first tried to strike a tone of gratitude and positivity about his tenure but then got into some score setting of the eight members who voted to oust him.
He said that they are not conservative but “angry and chaotic.” Of Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), he said, “is a whole other story,” suggesting that she is lying when she says that he hasn’t kept his word.
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Of Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who led the effort to remove him, McCarthy said, “You know it was personal. It was not about spending….It was about ethics.” Gaetz is the subject of an ethics committee investigation. “Just because Gaetz said something, don’t believe it’s true. I haven’t heard him say one true thing yet.”
McCarthy also chided Democrats, claiming that before he became speaker, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told him that she would have his back should he face a motion to vacate. Instead, all Democrats voted for it. Pelosi was not present, as she was in San Francisco and will remain there to attend the funeral of Senator Dianne Feinstein.
McCarthy said that Pelosi told him, “I will always back you up,” having made the same offer to John Boehner and Paul Ryan, the two previous Republican speakers who ended up stepping aside. “I think today was a political decision by the Democrats,” he said, suggesting that they should have voted for him to preserve the institution of the House.
A number of Democrats, however, were especially peeved by McCarthy’s interview on Face the Nation on Sunday, when he tried to blame them for the near shutdown, adding to a list of grievances over his tenure.
McCarthy said that he talked to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries before the vote, but confirmed that no offers were made to help them out. The former speaker reportedly told the GOP caucus that he would not “sell my soul” to the Democrats, and his refusal to engage with the opposite party left many members wondering why they should bail him out for free.
McCarthy said that he had not thought about whether he would remain in Congress, and did not have a choice for his successor. He dismissed the idea that Donald Trump would be in the running. And he did have advice for whoever takes his place.: “Change the rules.” When he was elected speaker in January, McCarthy had agreed to a rule that allowed any member to bring a motion to vacate to the floor, something that ultimately unseated him.
A House vote on the next speaker will not take place until next week. Without a leader, no votes will be held for the rest of the week.
PREVIOUSLY: Kevin McCarthy will not run for speaker again after he was ousted from his leadership position on Tuesday.
McCarthy plans to give a statement at 7:30 p.m. ET/4:30 p.m PT, but CNN and other outlets reported that he told the Republican conference that he would not put his name forward. The meeting is taking place in the basement of the Capitol.
McCarthy is the first speaker to be ousted, after eight Republicans voted in favor of a motion to vacate the position. All Democrats joined them, leaving McCarthy short of a majority.
PREVIOUSLY: Kevin McCarthy was ousted as House Speaker on Tuesday, amid a revolt from a handful of lawmakers on the Republican right and unity among Democrats in opposition to him.
The vote was 216-210. Eight Republicans joined with all Democrats to remove him.
There was a hush in the chamber as the presiding member, Rep. Steve Womack (R-AR), announced the roll call and said, “The office of speaker of the House of the United States House of Representatives is hereby declared vacant.”
McCarthy stared straight ahead for much of the roll call as a clerk read off the names of each member for the manual vote.
After the chair declared the speakership vacant, there were some chuckles, and a GOP member could be heard saying, “Now what?”
The House then moved to a recess, but it was unclear when lawmakers would move on to try to elect a successor. Members lined up to shake hands with McCarthy and hug him after the roll call was announced. He did not answer questions as he walked back to his office amid heavy security.
Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) is serving as speaker pro tem as Republicans decide what to do next. Some members said that they expected that McCarthy’s name will be put forward again. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who led the effort to oust McCarthy, did not answer when asked who he thought should be nominated to succeed McCarthy. Earlier, he told reporters that McCarthy was “a creature of the swamp,” following up on remarks he said on the floor in which he accused GOP colleagues of being beholden to lobbyists.
To McCarthy’s allies, though, Gaetz is engaging in a preening effort to draw attention to himself, as he raised money off his motion to vacate soon after he filed it on Monday night. Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-ND) said on the floor, “The incentive structure in this town is completely broken. We no longer value loyalty, integrity, competence or collaboration. Instead, we have descended to a place where clicks, TV hits and the never-ending quest for the most mediocre taste of celebrity drives decisions and encourages juvenile behavior that is so far beneath this esteemed body.”
Republicans were expected to meet for a conference on Tuesday evening.
“I fear that the emotions are such that this thing could really blow up on our conference,” Womack told reporters after the ouster vote. “Emotions are high and there are people in there that are not happy, and there’s a handful of people that are having their finger pointed at them, and it wouldn’t take much. This could become somewhat of a powder keg. I just fear for those kinds of things.”
Asked what he meant, Womack noted that there are members who have been in the military, played football and hockey, and “they’re all type As.”
“I sure hope we don’t come to any sort of physical violence or anything of that sort because we ought to be better than that,” he said.
Womack said that it is a possibility McCarthy would again be put forth as a nominee for speaker, he also wasn’t sure that his eight GOP opponents could be persuaded to change their stance. “If you’re on the yea side of that motion to vacate, I’m not really sure what it would take for them to flip to ‘No” or to rethink their vote. My impression is that they have drawn that proverbial line, and they’re there. So it is kind of a sad day, really, for the institution.”
He also said that the removal vote puts the GOP majority at risk in 2024.
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), who opposed McCarthy in January, nevertheless voted against ousting him, albeit she cast her vote as a “no for now.” During the roll call, she left the floor for a bit before returning with a baby, presumably her grandson.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement that President Joe Biden “has demonstrated that he is always eager to work with both parties in Congress in good faith on behalf of the American people. Because the urgent challenges facing our nation will not wait, he hopes the House will quickly elect a speaker.”
PREVIOUSLY: Kevin McCarthy’s future as House speaker was in peril as enough Republicans joined with Democrats on a vote that clears the way for a roll call later on Tuesday to oust him.
A vote to table GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz’s resolution to remove McCarthy was rejected 218-208. Eleven Republicans joined with all Democrats, raising the prospect that McCarthy will come up short in trying to remain in the post.
McCarthy chatted with other members as the vote to table was cast. At times, he was standing just a few feet away from Gaetz, who has been his nemesis, but they did not chat.
The vote on removing McCarthy will take place around 4 p.m. ET, and will be by manual roll call.
Before then, backers of McCarthy are speaking on one side of the chamber, while his GOP opponents, led by Gaetz, are at a lectern on the opposite side of the aisle. Democrats just watched.
If McCarthy is removed, he could still run again for speaker, a prospect that could lead to another long battle for House leadership as there was in January.
Not present for the vote: Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who had traveled to California to escort the casket of Senator Dianne Feinstein, who died last week.
Pelosi wrote on Twitter, “In this Congress, it is the responsibility of House Republicans to choose a nominee and elect the speaker on the floor. At this time, there is no justification for a departure from this tradition.” She is expected to remain in San Francisco for Feinstein’s funeral on Thursday.
PREVIOUSLY: Nearly 10 months since a marathon series of votes to make him speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday faces losing his job.
The House was poised to vote on a motion to vacate, filed by McCarthy’s nemesis from the right, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL). The vote, expected to take place at about 1:30 p.m. ET, threatened to revive the spectable of January, when McCarthy endured through 15 votes before winning the speakership.
It was unclear whether McCarthy had the votes to table Gaetz’s effort, as the Florida congressman needs only a handful of lawmakers on his side given the GOP’s slim four-vote majority. Some Democrats could vote to help McCarthy, but House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a letter to the caucus that party leadership would back the speaker’s ouster.
On the Hill, reporters filled seats in the media gallery, and other staked out McCarthy’s office, while tourists waited in Statuary Hall with their camera phones. News networks got an extra dose of midday drama with the vote, one of the few times that a roll call has a genuinely suspenseful outcome. Democrats appeared to try to delay an earlier vote, ostensibly to give some of their members more time to make it to the floor. McCarthy needs a majority of members present to survive.
Gaetz is filing the motion after McCarthy advanced a resolution on Saturday to fund the government for the next 45 days. McCarthy ultimately had to rely on Democratic votes for passage, and Gaetz has claimed that the speaker made a deal with President Joe Biden to also bring forward a measure for further assistance to Ukraine. “Clearly someone has been lied to,” Gaetz told reporters. He sat alone in the chamber, reading from his cell phone, in the half hour before the vote.
McCarthy, who has said that he did not speak to Biden, predicted that he would survive.
“If I counted how many times someone wanted to knock me out, I would have been gone a long time ago,” McCarthy told reporters after a meeting with the House Republican conference.
He added, “I think Matt has planned this for a long time. It didn’t matter what transpired.”
McCarthy also said he had not made a deal with Democrats to save his speakership.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said that “we encourage our Republican colleagues who claim to be traditional to break from the extremists, to end the chaos, end the dysfunction. … We are ready, willing and able to work with our Republican colleagues. But it is on them to join us to move the Congress and the country forward.”
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