The House will vote Tuesday on whether to remove House Speaker Kevin McCarthy from office, following a motion to table it. Resolution by Rep. Matt Gaetz he failed to gain enough support from Republicans.
The motion’s failure is ominous for McCarthy, who has been president for just under nine months. House Republican leaders had attempted to introduce the motion in an effort to quell a handful of GOP detractors, including Gaetz. Republican Rep. Tom Emmer, the majority leader, announced the vote Tuesday afternoon.
Eleven Republicans voted against introducing it, leaving the GOP without the majority they would need to override Gaetz’s motion.
The Speaker of the House is not only the leader of the house but also second in line for the presidency. Overthrowing a sitting president by vote in the middle of a congressional term would be unprecedented in American history, and McCarthy allies have warned that doing so would set a precedent that would loom over all future presidents. That argument has not persuaded Democrats to come to McCarthy’s rescue.
Democratic leaders are urging Democrats to vote “yes” on the override motion.
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“Given their unwillingness to break with MAGA extremism in an authentic and comprehensive way, the House Democratic leadership will vote yes on the pending Republican motion to vacate the speakership,” Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries wrote. to your group.
McCarthy expressed confidence to reporters Tuesday morning that he will prevail, although if five Republicans join all Democrats in voting against him, McCarthy would be removed from office.
Before the vote, McCathy told reporters that “it is what it is” but insisted he was “confident” he would remain president.
“I’m an optimist because I think there’s no point in being anything else,” McCarthy said.
He previously said he spoke with Jeffries on Tuesday morning, but when asked if he would have to rely on Democratic votes to keep the presidency, he responded: “No, I’m not personally.”
Most Democrats may not be willing to help McCarthy. At a caucus meeting Tuesday morning, Rep. Pete Aguilar played a clip from the speaker’s Sunday appearance on “Face the Nation,” in which he blamed Democrats for nearly shutting down the government. In fact, more Democrats voted than Republicans. the bill to expand government funding for 45 days.
Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal said her party would vote unanimously against McCarthy.
“We are following our leader and we are not saving Kevin McCarthy,” he said.
If he wins the vote to introduce Gaetz’s resolution, McCarthy will remain president. If he fails, there will be a vote on the measure to vacate the presidency. If a majority of members present support the resolution, McCarthy will be removed and a new president will have to be elected.
McCarthy said Gaetz could bring the eviction motion to the floor repeatedly.
If McCarthy is removed by an override motion, it would be unprecedented.
“Well, it’s never happened before, we’ve never had a president removed by the override motion,” said Casey Burgat, assistant professor and director of the legislative affairs program at George Washington University.
If McCarthy is ousted, someone from his secret backing list would likely act as a temporary spokesman to oversee a new election. It’s unclear how extensive any temporary president’s power would be, but Republicans would likely push for that person to have more power than Democrats would like.
Gaetz has consistently opposed McCarthy’s presidency and was among those who helped drag out his president’s election process to a record 15 rounds of voting. To win over far-right Republicans, McCarthy agreed to a condition allowing a single member to make a motion to remove the president. That agreement has backfired. McCarthy said Gaetz’s challenge to his speakership is “personal.”
“He’s more interested in getting television interviews,” McCarthy said of the Florida Republican.
Historical precedent for impeachment of a speaker
Three resolutions have been offered since 1910 to declare the presidency vacant, but only one received a vote.
In 1910, Republican House Speaker Joe Cannon called for a vote on his impeachment, which was easily defeated. Cannon remained president for another year and lost his seat in the 1912 election.
Republican Rep. Mark Meadows introduced a resolution in 2015 to remove House Speaker John Boehner from leadership. But it never received a floor vote because it was not introduced as a privileged resolution, but instead was referred to the House Rules Committee. Still, Boehner resigned after two months.
In 2019, Republican Rep. Ralph Abraham introduced a resolution to expel House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and declare the speaker’s office vacant. The measure was referred to the House Ethics Committee and the House Rules Committee.
— Scott McFarlane, John Nolen, Ellis Kim and Jack Turman contributed to this report.