The House will vote Tuesday afternoon to determine whether House Speaker Kevin McCarthy will remain speaker, after Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz introduced a motion “declaring the office of Speaker of the House of Representatives to be vacant” on the House floor Monday night.
First, the House will vote to table Gaetz’s motion to vacate the speaker’s chair, a move House Republican leadership is making in an effort to quash a handful of Republican detractors including Gaetz. GOP Rep. Tom Emmer, the majority whip, announced the vote Tuesday afternoon.
The Speaker of the House is not only the leader of the chamber but also second in line for the presidency. Ousting a sitting speaker by vote in the middle of a congressional term would be unprecedented in American history, and McCarthy’s allies have warned that doing so would set a precedent that would hang over every speaker moving forward. That argument has not persuaded Democrats to come to McCarthy’s rescue.
Democratic leadership members are urging Democrats to vote “yes” on the motion to vacate.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
“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,” Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries wrote to his caucus.
McCarthy expressed confidence to reporters Tuesday morning that he’ll prevail, although if five Republicans join all of the Democrats in voting against him, McCarthy would be removed.
Ahead of the vote, McCathy told reporters “it is what it is” but insisted he was “confident” he would remain speaker.
“I’m an optimist because I think there’s no point in being anything else,” McCarthy said.
He earlier said he spoke with Jeffries Tuesday morning, but when he was asked whether he would have to rely on the votes of Democrats to retain the speakership, he replied, “No, I personally am not.”
Most Democrats may not be inclined to help McCarthy. At a caucus meeting Tuesday morning, Jeffries played a clip from the speaker’s appearance Sunday on “Face the Nation,” in which he blamed Democrats for nearly shutting down the government. In fact, more Democrats than Republicans voted for the bill to extend government funding for 45 days.
Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal said her party would be unanimous in voting against McCarthy.
“We are following our leader, and we are not saving Kevin McCarthy,” she said.
If the vote to table Gaetz’s resolution wins, McCarthy will remain speaker. If it fails, a vote on the move to vacate the chair would follow. If a majority of the members present support the resolution, McCarthy will be removed, and a new speaker would have to be chosen.
McCarthy said Gaetz could bring the motion to vacate on the floor repeatedly.
If McCarthy is ousted by a motion to vacate, it would be unprecedented.
“Well it’s never happened before we’ve never had a speaker be ousted through the motion to vacate,” said Casey Burgat, assistant professor and legislative affairs program director at George Washington University.
If McCarthy is ousted, someone from his secret backup list would likely serve as a temporary speaker overseeing a new election. It’s not clear how extensive the power of any temporary speaker would be, but Republicans would likely push for that person to have more power than Democrats would want.
Gaetz has consistently opposed McCarthy’s speakership, and was among those who helped draw out the process of electing him speaker to a record 15 rounds of voting. In order to win over far-right Republicans, McCarthy agreed to a condition making it possible for a single member to motion to oust the speaker. That deal has come back to haunt him. McCarthy said Gaetz’s challenge to his speakership is “personal.”
“He’s more interested in securing TV interviews,” McCarthy said of the Florida Republican.
Historical precedent for ousting a speaker
There have been three resolutions offered since 1910 to declare the speakership vacant, but only one ever received a vote.
In 1910, Republican House Speaker Joe Cannon invited a vote on his ouster, which was easily defeated. Cannon remained speaker for another year and lost his seat in the 1912 election.
Republican Rep. Mark Meadows introduced a resolution in 2015 to remove House Speaker John Boehner from leadership. But it never received a floor vote because it wasn’t introduced as a privileged resolution, instead being referred to the House Rules Committee. Still, Boehner resigned within two months.
In 2019, Republican Rep. Ralph Abraham introduced a resolution to expel House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and declare the Office of the Speaker vacant. The measure was referred to the House Committee on Ethics and the House Committee on Rules.
— Scott McFarlane, John Nolen, Ellis Kim and Jack Turman contributed to this report
