US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has been impeached as speaker after Democrats announced they would not bail him out of a move by hardliners within his own Republican party to remove him from the powerful post.
McCarthy was axed from his role on Tuesday in a ruthless overthrow by far-right Republican lawmakers furious over his cooperation with Democrats.
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For the first time in its 234-year history, the House backed a resolution “to vacate the office of the speaker” with a 216-210 vote setting the stage for an unprecedented contest to replace McCarthy a year before the presidential election.
Representative Patrick McHenry of North Carolina was appointed speaker pro tempore of the House after McCarthy’s stunning ouster.
McCarthy sparked fury among the ultra-conservative wing of the Republicans at the weekend when he worked with Democrats to pass a stopgap funding measure to avert a government shutdown.
Leading the criticism was congressman Matt Gaetz, a longtime McCarthy antagonist who on Monday moved to topple the speaker with a “motion to vacate the chair” — forcing a vote scheduled for mid-afternoon.
The move meant Democrats were faced with the choice of voting to rescue a speaker who is aligned with scandal-embroiled former Republican president Donald Trump and recently opened an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.
Ahead of the vote, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries ultimately encouraged Democrats to oust McCarthy, criticising the right-wing lawmakers he refers to as “MAGA extremists” after Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement.
“Given their unwillingness to break from MAGA extremism in an authentic and comprehensive manner, House Democratic leadership will vote yes on the pending Republican motion to vacate the chair,” Jeffries said in a letter to colleagues.
And the writing looked to be on the wall as a preliminary vote designed to “table” Gaetz’s motion, effectively strangling it at birth, failed — with 11 Republicans voting to proceed to the main ballot, expected after an hour of debate.
“I’m confident I’ll hold on,” a defiant McCarthy told reporters on Capitol Hill ahead of the voting.
But Gaetz said he is certain he has at least five Republicans ready to vote in favour of ousting McCarthy — enough, as long as Democrats don’t intervene with their own votes to rescue the speaker.
“I have enough Republicans where at this point next week, one of two things will happen: Kevin McCarthy won’t be the speaker of the House, or he’ll be the speaker of the House working at the pleasure of the Democrats,” the Florida lawmaker said.
The tussle comes two days after the House and Senate passed a measure to avert a costly government shutdown — both with big bipartisan majorities — by extending federal funding through mid-November.
Conservatives were angered by what they saw as a flip-flop by McCarthy, who had promised an end to hastily prepared stopgap legislation agreed with the support of the opposite party, and a return to budgeting through the committee process.
There was little support for the speaker across the aisle, and many liberal lawmakers have indicated that they would prefer to watch the Republican civil war from the sidelines rather than get involved.
In a rare show of support, several members of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, often a thorn in McCarthy’s side, announced that they were against firing him.
“I have been profoundly disappointed in several elements of Speaker McCarthy’s leadership, but now is not the time,” said South Carolina’s Ralph Norman.