October 3, 2023
Kevin McCarthy has just been fired from his job as Speaker of the House.
Final vote – 216-210. 8 Republican voted to remove McCarthy and 8 members were absent for today’s vote.
All Democrats voted to remove him and – Republicans joined them.
This is historic. No Speaker has ever been removed from his job by vote the history of this country. And what’s more – this was brought up by the Speaker’s own Republican conference. What’s interesting – the vast majority of the Republican conference wanted to keep McCarthy – and it was that small group that got rid of him. With such a narrow majority – that small group has the power to do this. I told you this was coming in this video last night after Representative Matt Gaetz filed the motion to vacate the chair.
Now – the House will have to go through the process of selecting a new Speaker.
Someone has to get 218 votes. But who could get that kind of support. It’s unclear. It is very possible Kevin McCarthy will be put up for Speaker again but whether he can get 218 votes is unknown. Remember the last time it took 15 rounds of votes to give McCarthy the gavel.
Anything can happen – the next few hours will be hectic.
But as I told you last night – the job of speaker of the House is a constitutional position. The House of Representatives must have a speaker. No work – nothing can be done until there’s a Speaker. And if one isn’t elected – the House will be paralyzed.
