January 7, 2023 updates on Speaker Kevin McCarthy

Table Of Content

• The Republican leader claws his way to the post in a dramatic late-night vote.
• Historic House speaker showdown highlighted matters of race and representation
• d Republican joins motion to oust Mike Johnson as House speaker
• It’s official: All 50 states have sent women to Congress
• Johnson Has a Tough Job. McCarthy’s Concessions Are Making It Tougher.
• Biden officials indefinitely postpone ban on menthol cigarettes amid election-year pushback

On October 3, 2023, the United States House of Representatives voted to remove its speaker, Kevin McCarthy of California, through a motion to vacate[a] filed by Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida, a fellow member of the Republican Party. McCarthy's removal marked the first time in American history that a speaker of the House was removed through a motion to vacate. The vacancy started a process to elect a speaker that began following an eight-day recess. WASHINGTON (AP) — For a long and frustrating third day, divided Republicans kept the speaker’s chair of the U.S. House empty Thursday, as party leader Kevin McCarthy failed again and again in an excruciating string of ballots to win enough GOP votes to seize the chamber’s gavel.

The Republican leader claws his way to the post in a dramatic late-night vote.

While the San Francisco Democrat never ruled her caucus as the googly-eyed liberal of popular parody, she was guided by a bone-deep set of left-leaning convictions that helped yield a series of triumphs, including passage of Obamacare after many in her party had given up. Not least, a firm set of guiding principles also helped marshal the unruly cadre on her side of the aisle. The deep humbling of McCarthy could be seen as cruel, a snub by fellow lawmakers whose power was made possible by the Bakersfield Republican’s years of hard work as grand strategist and campaigner in chief for the House GOP. But the drip-drip torture of prolonged balloting was so egregiously self-inflicted, so glaring in the making and so abundantly well-deserved that it is impossible to muster even the slightest bit of sympathy. He ceded so much to foes — effective veto power over must-pass legislation, greater say over committee assignments, allowing a sole dissident to trigger a vote on his ouster — that McCarthy will spend his shaky tenure, as long as it lasts, balanced on a razor’s edge. Instead, with the GOP barely in control and the chamber in chaos, McCarthy crawled into the speakership early Saturday on his hands and knees.

Historic House speaker showdown highlighted matters of race and representation

The floor fight dragged on for the better part of a week, the longest since 1859, and paralyzed the House, with lawmakers stripped of their security clearances because they could not be sworn in as official members of Congress until a speaker was chosen. Asked whether she plans to move forward with her motion to vacate Johnson’s speakership, she said, “It’s coming regardless of what Mike Johnson decides to do." Both the hard-liners and the governing wing want Republicans to grow their majority — but with members like themselves. It’s why the fight has spilled onto the campaign trail as Republicans stump against their own colleagues. “If I start taking people off committees right now, it’s likely that I cause more problems than I solve,” he said in a statement that made clear the confines in which the conference must work under until the next election. Plucked from obscurity and chosen to lead the House six months ago because he had no enemies, the speaker has now rankled everyone.

d Republican joins motion to oust Mike Johnson as House speaker

Matt Gaetz starts effort to remove Kevin McCarthy as House speaker - NPR

Matt Gaetz starts effort to remove Kevin McCarthy as House speaker.

Posted: Mon, 02 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

He also got strong support in the Senate, where even an outright majority of Republicans voted for the aid on Tuesday. But this time around several Democrats have indicated they would cross the aisle to support Johnson and frustrate Greene & Co. if it came to a vote. Democratic leaders have indicated they are open to this, and it essentially repeats the strategy that allowed Johnson to pass the Ukraine portion of the aid bill earlier this month. The increasing chances of a messy floor fight over the speaker’s gavel on Jan. 3, Day One of the new Congress, is worrying House Republicans, who have been meeting endlessly in private at the Capitol in an effort to resolve the standoff. His toppling from the speaker’s post was fueled by grievances from his party’s hard-right flank, including over his decision to work with Democrats to keep the federal government open rather than risk a shutdown.

It’s official: All 50 states have sent women to Congress

He has covered campaigns and elections in 49 of the 50 states, including a dozen presidential contests and scores of mayoral, legislative, gubernatorial and congressional races. He also reported from the White House and Capitol Hill during the George H.W. Bush and Clinton administrations. It's unclear how soon after McCarthy's ouster the Republican majority will begin the process for electing a successor.

Kevin McCarthy resigning from Congress after being ousted as House speaker - ABC News

Kevin McCarthy resigning from Congress after being ousted as House speaker.

Posted: Wed, 06 Dec 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]

California Republicans, buoyed by congressional wins, have no obvious Senate prospects

Multiple Democrats told NPR that neither the speaker nor his allies had approached Democratic leaders with any proposal to support him. His comments followed a lengthy "open mic" meeting of House Democrats in the basement of the Capitol complex Tuesday. One by one lawmakers got up and had one minute to advise on what they thought the caucus should do, and one by one Democrats railed on Speaker McCarthy's record and his unwillingness to reach across the aisle. "We are ready, willing and able to work together with our Republican colleagues but it is on them to join us to move the Congress and the country forward," Jeffries told reporters in the Capitol.

Johnson Has a Tough Job. McCarthy’s Concessions Are Making It Tougher.

“I think it’s great that Matt Gaetz has a group up there that’s bringing attention to what’s wrong,” said William Paulovitz, 78, referring to the firebrand Florida Republican who has been one of the far-right rebels blocking Mr. McCarthy’s bid for speaker. Mr. Paulovitz, a retired businessman, dismissed his representative’s run for speaker in a place that representative knows all too well — outside Luigi’s, a popular lunch eatery that has long been a piece of Mr. McCarthy’s self-spun Bakersfield lore. The Republican divisions obstructing Mr. McCarthy’s decade-long ambition of becoming speaker of the House have been playing out on both the national stage in Washington and a far smaller though equally telling one in his hometown and home district.

“I think the House is in a lot better place with some of the work that’s been done to democratize power out of the speakership, and that’s our goal,” he said. Left unmentioned was that many of the same rebels who helped lead the effort in Congress to overturn the 2020 election, giving rise to the assault that day, were also among the final holdouts working to block Mr. McCarthy’s ascent. Representative Victoria Spartz of Indiana, who had voted “present” in previous ballots, also voted for Mr. McCarthy in the 12th vote. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., a progressive who is a member of the Armed Services Committee, said Sunday he would protect Johnson’s job if members of his far-right flank go through with their threat to oust him. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene maintained Sunday that she plans to follow through with an effort to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson if he doesn’t resign after the House passed a $95 billion package that includes foreign aid for Ukraine. Minutes after the clash, some hard-right lawmakers who previously resisted joining the G.O.P. push to oust him began to sound more open to the idea.

Biden officials indefinitely postpone ban on menthol cigarettes amid election-year pushback

If the motion is brought to the floor, the three Republican votes supporting it could be enough for passage if they are joined by all Democrats in the chamber. Members of the far right consider Johnson a weak speaker, viewing him as having been steamrolled by Democrats rather than accepting incremental conservative wins. They would prefer moving ultraconservative legislation with no chance of passing the Senate or being signed into law, and recessing the House no matter the consequences such as a potential government shutdown. They argue it’s their colleagues’ willingness to compromise that will end with them in the minority. Republicans should use the reins of the majority more forcefully, they say, to aggressively incorporate “America First” promises to voters on the campaign trail, echoing Trump, the presumptive 2024 presidential nominee. Those promises include significantly curtailing spending and clamping down on migrants at the southern border.

After the speaker pro tempore takes over, "presumably, the next order of business would be to choose a speaker," Green said. He pointed out that "it's unlikely the House would continue to operate as usual without a new speaker being selected." McCarthy was defiant but resigned to the vote following a lengthy meeting of House Republicans earlier in the day. Gaetz, who never supported McCarthy's candidacy in January, has cited McCarthy's decision to pass a short-term spending bill with Democratic support as evidence he has not "fulfilled his promises" to conservatives. The anniversary comes just weeks after the House committee investigating the attack concluded its investigation and released its full report. In it, they recommend the Ethics Committee investigate McCarthy for his refusal to comply with the panel's investigation.

Ahead of the 2010 midterms, McCarthy teamed with two other conservative rising stars in the party — then-Reps. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Eric Cantor of Virginia — charting a road map to win back the House by tackling debt and the deficit and attacking Obamacare. A tea party wave swept Republicans into power that fall, and the trio known as “the Young Guns” took much of the credit. California state law says that after a vacancy occurs, the governor must set a special election within two weeks.

Mr. McCarthy, who rarely moved from his seat over the days of votes, approached Mr. Gaetz and Ms. Boebert in their seats and appeared to be pleading with them to change their votes, his signature smile wiped from his face. At one point, Representative Mike Rogers, Republican of Alabama, had to be restrained after stepping toward Mr. Gaetz. Representative-elect Eli Crane of Arizona and Representative Matt Rosendale of Montana — the two holdouts who seemed most likely to move — both voted against him, leaving his fate in the hands of his lead tormentor, Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida. After a spectacle of arm-twisting on the House floor, Kevin McCarthy won over just enough of the far-right rebels he needed to become speaker.

“You have this moment in time where McCarthy wants it so badly and has just been raked over the coals for an awesome four days,” exulted Russ Vought, the president of the right-wing Center for Renewing America, as he listed the concessions the Republican leader had offered. Mr. Gosar, who voted against Mr. McCarthy on multiple ballots but changed his vote to support him on Friday, spread numerous lies about the 2020 election and spoke at “Stop the Steal” rallies arranged by Ali Alexander, a prominent organizer. When Representative Chip Roy of Texas, then a freshman and now one of Mr. McCarthy’s most vocal opponents, forced roll call votes on every amendment in spending bills in 2019, the process of approving them dragged on for two weeks. They had demanded the ability to hold a vote on the House floor for each individual earmark. In an effort to win them over, Mr. McCarthy has offered to give rank-and-file lawmakers more influence in the process of writing spending bills. One official briefed on that emerging compromise said if a lawmaker took issue with a certain earmark, they could force such a vote.

Action is halted in the House until next week, when Republicans try to elect a new speaker. One McCarthy critic, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, cast votes for Donald Trump — a symbolic but pointed sign of the broad divisions over the Republican Party’s future. Then he went further, moving the day from protest toward the absurd in formally nominating the former president to be House speaker on the 11th ballot.