October 2, 2023
Is Representative Kevin McCarthy going to lose his job as Speaker of the House this week?
Here’s Representative Matt Gaetz just a few hours ago?
After weeks of threatening – today Gaetz officially filed a motion to vacate the chair. That’s the fancy name for the specific motion to remove the Speaker from his job.
Now – Representative Gaetz has a laundry list of grievances against McCarthy – chief among them was relying on Democrats over the weekend to pass a bill to temporarily keep the government open. And this “secret deal on Ukraine” that he’s talking about – isn’t really a secret – I reported on it in this video on Saturday. According to democrats – they agreed to support Speaker McCarthy’s bill to keep the government open *if* he put a simple bill on the floor of the house to fund Ukraine aid and let members either vote yes or no. McCarthy won’t confirm that he made such a deal. But Gaetz says no such bill should ever go to the floor.
As for Speaker McCarthy — he says bring in on. He continues to be confident that he will not lose his job. So is that realistic?
Well – in order for McCarthy to lose his job as Speaker, the motion to vacate will have to be filed…after that – it has to go up for a vote in two legislative days. Then it requires a majority to vote yes. So – if all Democrats vote yes to remove McCarthy – 5 Republicans would have to join them. Then just like we saw earlier this year – the house would have to vote for a new Speaker. And with the fractured Republican party in the majority – that could take another 15 rounds of votes or more.
So the big question is – will the democrats support Gaetz in his attempt to fire Kevin McCarthy? Well, so far the Democrats have been silent. There are politics at play – it’s possible, McCarthy would go to Democrat leadership and try and get their support his Speakership and if he does that, it’s not going to come for free. McCarthy would have to make concessions to the Democrats in order for their votes. What that looks like, at this point – we just don’t know. We also don’t know how many other Republicans besides Gaetz would vote to remove McCarthy as Speaker.
All we do know is – if there is no Speaker, the United States house of representatives is paralyzed. No work can get done without a Speaker. And with the clock ticking on another government shutdown on November 17th, they need all the working time they can get.
Watch Rep. Matt Gaetz here.
