The US House of Representatives is bracing for a key vote Tuesday over Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s political future as GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida pushes for his ouster.
McCarthy told House Republicans that the motion to vacate will be brought up in Tuesday’s first vote series, according to sources in the room of the closed-door conference meeting. Gaetz on Monday moved to oust McCarthy from the top House leadership post by offering a motion to vacate the chair on the House floor – a rare procedural maneuver that can be used to force a vote to remove the speaker.
It’s not yet clear how the process will play out, but the first vote to occur related to the motion to vacate could be a procedural move to try to kill the effort. If a procedural vote fails, then there would be a vote directly on whether to remove McCarthy as speaker, which would take only a majority to succeed.
McCarthy also told his members he will not cut a deal with Democrats, sources said.
Gaetz was directly pressed by his colleagues during Tuesday’s party meeting for his grand plan, and who would replace McCarthy if he was ousted, sources said. Gaetz stood up and responded that there would need to be a new speaker’s election that plays out but didn’t name anyone he had in mind for the job.
The push to oust McCarthy represents the most serious threat to the California Republican’s speakership to date and marks a major escalation in tensions for a House GOP conference that has been mired in in-fighting and could be thrown into more chaos if McCarthy is pushed out.
It comes as a bloc of hardline conservatives have continued to thwart McCarthy, voting against key priorities of GOP leadership and repeatedly throwing up roadblocks to the speaker’s agenda.
No House speaker has ever been ousted through the passage of a resolution to remove them.
To force a vote, a member must go to the House floor and announce their intent to offer the resolution to remove the speaker – as Gaetz did. Doing so requires the speaker to put the resolution on the legislative schedule within two legislative days, setting up a showdown on the floor over the issue.
A vote on a resolution to remove the speaker could still be preempted, however, even once it is on track to come to the floor for consideration.
For example, when the resolution is called up on the floor, a motion to table – or kill – the resolution could be offered and would be voted on first. That vote would also only require a simple majority to succeed – and if it did succeed then there would not be a vote directly on the resolution to remove the speaker because the resolution would instead be tabled.
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