House Is Vacant After Gaetz’s Motion Passes, Removing McCarthy as Speaker

by Nicholas Ballasy

The GOP-led House of Representatives voted Tuesday in favor of Florida GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz’s effort to remove House Speaker Kevin McCarthy from his position. 

The motion to vacate is an up or down vote of yea, nay or present. Many Democrats voted in favor of removing McCarthy along with 7 conservative Republicans. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), regarded as a moderate Republican from a purple district, also voted to remove. The final vote count is 216 in favor and 210 against. Members including former House Speaker Nanci Pelosi did not vote. 

Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla) made the motion to table the effort but it failed. House Democrats voted with a small group of conservatives against tabling the motion in a 208 to 218 vote.

A C-SPAN producer wrote on X that Gaetz and other conservatives are seated on the Democrat side of the House chamber ahead of the vote. Gaetz said on the floor that he tried to speak from a podium on the other side of the chamber but wasn’t able to do so ahead of the debate.

Gaetz introduced the motion to vacate on Monday evening, which House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said his party’s leadership would support.

On the House floor, Gaetz said McCarthy did not follow through on putting up 12 “single subject” appropriations bills on the floor for votes. He argued that the way to curb wasteful spending and get the debt under control is to pass 12 separate bills funding federal departments. Gaetz hasn’t said who he supports for speaker instead of McCarthy. 

Other Republicans supporting McCarthy said the 45-day continuing resolution that passed over the weekend to avoid a shutdown gives the House time to pass the rest of the appropriations bills. They also noted that the Democrats currently run the Senate and the White House.

Conservatives such as Rep. Chip Roy (R-Tex.) said on Tuesday he would vote against the motion to vacate the chair. Conservative Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) wrote on X that he would vote in favor of the motion.

Former President Trump weighed in on the drama unfolding on the House floor.

“Why is it that Republicans are always fighting among themselves, why aren’t they fighting the Radical Left Democrats who are destroying our Country?” Trump wrote Tuesday on Truth Social.

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Nicholas Ballasy has been breaking news for more than a decade in the nation’s capital and questioning political leaders about the most pressing issues facing the nation.
Photo “Kevin McCarthy” and Background Photo “Kevin McCarthy as Speaker” by Kevin McCarthy.