United States House Speaker, Kevin McCarthy, was voted out of his leadership position in a recent historic vote after far-right members of the Republican party revolted for collaborating with Democrats to pass funding to stop a government shutdown.
In the vote, 216-210, eight Republicans joined the Democrats to vote McCarthy out. This is the first time a House speaker has been removed in a no-confidence vote.
Republican Rep. Steve Womack of Arkansas, who presided over the chamber, said: “The office of speaker of the House of the United States House of Representatives is hereby declared vacant.”
Rep. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, a top supporter of McCarthy’s and a member of the Financial Services Committee, was appointed as Interim Speaker. The rules of the 118th Congress state that “in the case of a vacancy in the office of speaker, the next member” named on a list tendered by McCarthy to the clerk of the House in January will become speaker pro tempore until a speaker is elected.
Though McCarthy can be re-nominated and re-elected as speaker, that path seems unlikely unless he makes concessions to the Republicans or strikes a coalition with Democrats.
While talking to reporters after the vote, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida said: “The reason Kevin McCarthy went down today is because nobody trusts Kevin McCarthy. Kevin McCarthy has made multiple contradictory promises, and when they all came due, he lost votes of people who maybe don’t even ideologically agree with me on everything.
“This represents the ripping off of the Band-Aid and that’s what we need to do to get back on track.”
