The road to the presidency of the US House of Representatives was rocky for Kevin McCarthy. After the violent budget dispute at the weekend, the right-wing fringe of his party is once again making life difficult for him – and is resorting to a rare measure.
U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is facing an extraordinary push for his removal. Republican MP Matt Gaetz from the ultra-right wing of the parliamentary group submitted a motion on Monday to recall his party colleague McCarthy. Gaetz did not propose an alternative leader for the House of Representatives.
The background is the recent agreement on a transitional budget until November 17th, which averted an impending standstill in government business over the weekend. To get the bridge funding approved, McCarthy had relied on Democratic votes. Previously, his budget proposals had failed, not least due to the resistance of the hardliners in his group.
Revolt on the ultra-right fringe
Rep. Gaetz had been threatening McCarthy for months with a motion to have him removed. After the so-called shutdown was averted, the dispute has now escalated. Gaetz said he has enough Republicans on his side “so that at this point next week one of two things will happen: Kevin McCarthy will no longer be Speaker of the House or he will be Speaker of the House working at the mercy of the Democrats. ”
McCarthy again appeared belligerent. “Just bring it on,” he said in response.
Historic step with an uncertain outcome
Gaetz’s proposal does not mean that McCarthy will automatically lose his job. This would require a majority in the House of Representatives. A vote could also be prevented with motions. The Chamber of Congress will have to deal with this in the coming days. No chairman of the House of Representatives has ever lost his office as a result of such a move, and such a motion has only occurred sporadically in recent decades.
Gaetz was one of more than a dozen right-wing Republicans who repeatedly voted against McCarthy’s bid for speaker in January. McCarthy ultimately prevailed after 15 ballots. A prerequisite for his victory in the January vote was that McCarthy agreed to a change in the rules that would allow a single member of the House of Representatives to request a vote on the removal of the Republican, known in English as the “Speaker.” The radical MPs have been relentlessly pushing McCarthy ever since.