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“A handful of Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday ousted Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy… The 216-to-210 vote marked the first time in history that the House removed its leader, with eight Republicans voting with 208 Democrats to remove McCarthy. McCarthy told reporters he would not make another run for speaker…
“Tuesday's rebellion was led by Representative Matt Gaetz, a far-right Republican from Florida and McCarthy antagonist who finally turned on the speaker after he on Saturday relied on Democratic votes to help pass a bill to avoid a partial government shutdown.” Reuters
The right criticizes Gaetz, arguing that he is hurting the Republican party.
“Mr. Biggs argued on the floor that the House hadn’t passed the 12 annual spending bills on time, but that’s because of demands from Members like him. He and Mr. Gaetz offered mainly a list of grievances and supposedly failed promises that had no chance of being realized [in] this Congress. Their real motive looks to be spite, personal and political, and the result is to sow chaos in their own ranks…
“Meanwhile, the House is essentially frozen. The putative GOP majority is weaker, and its ability to gain any policy victories has been undermined. Oversight of the Biden Administration will slow or stop. Republicans in swing districts who are vulnerable in 2024 will be especially wary of trusting the Gaetz faction, and regaining any unity of purpose will be that much harder. The crazy left and right are cheering, but no one else is.”
Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal
“The entire Republican Party will pay an enormous price for this maneuver. It’s one thing to remove a speaker; it’s another to remove him without no obvious way to resolve the resulting impasse. Each day it lasts tells American voters, ‘Republicans don’t know how to govern.’…
“That message is a gift to Democrats, who are going into the next election with a sluggish economy, inflation, an open border, urban decay and an aged president. Biden’s unpopularity is surpassed only by his vice president. They needed a gift. And Matt Gaetz gave them a big one.”Charles Lipson, Spectator World
“Gaetz claims the last straw for him was McCarthy’s decision to pass a short-term funding bill to avert a government shutdown that depended on the votes of Democrats. This even though Gaetz would not agree to a Republican bill to keep the government open that would have improved McCarthy’s negotiating position. Put another way, Gaetz is supposedly mad that McCarthy allied with Democrats to pass a bill supported by 126 Republicans, but he just allied with Democrats to oust McCarthy – which was only supported by eight Republicans including himself…
“Democrats, who did not lift a finger to rescue McCarthy, are enjoying the chaos on the other side. But they may come to regret their move. At the end of the day, McCarthy was willing to cut deals, because he didn’t want to see the debt ceiling breached or the government shut down. That may not be the case with whoever replaces him.”
Philip Klein, National Review
“There are many things Republicans could be talking about and doing right now to help themselves and the country, including passing a budget, holding a serious debate on Ukraine aid, pushing for action to secure the border, spotlighting Joe Biden’s corruption and impeaching him, even punishing Jamaal Bowman for his idiotic stunt of pulling a fire alarm to stop a vote. Instead, all anybody will be talking about for weeks is the hunt for a new speaker.”
Dan McLaughlin, New York Post
The left has little sympathy for McCarthy, and urges bipartisan compromise.
The left has little sympathy for McCarthy, and urges bipartisan compromise.
“Of all the accusations that could be leveled against McCarthy, the notion that he was insufficiently committed to battling Democrats would not seem high on the list. As the GOP minority leader in the previous Congress, McCarthy voted to reject the 2020 election results in two key states and tried to impede the House committee that investigated the January 6 insurrection…
“Then, as speaker this year, he backed the GOP vote last summer to censure Democratic Representative Adam Schiff over his role in investigating former President Donald Trump while Democrats held the majority; empowered hard-line Republican conservatives to undertake sweeping investigations of President Joe Biden’s administration as well as his son Hunter; and even launched, on his own authority, an impeachment inquiry into the president without any hard evidence of wrongdoing…
“Yet on two occasions this year, McCarthy refused to risk chaos in the domestic and global economy, choosing instead to accept bipartisan deals with Democrats, first to avoid default on the federal debt and then to keep the federal government open when it faced a possible shutdown last weekend. And that was simply too much collaboration for the eight hard-line conservative Republicans who voted to remove him.”
Ronald Brownstein, The Atlantic
“[McCarthy] went out of his way to publicly tell Democrats (a) they needed to save him from a motion-to-vacate-the-chair and (b) he would make absolutely no concessions to secure their support. So whatever you think of the House Republicans who took away McCarthy’s gavel once Democrats wisely stepped aside from the GOP brawl, it’s hard to feel any sympathy for him. He really hasn’t been loyal to anybody or anything other than his own power.”
Ed Kilgore, New York Magazine
“Whoever walks into the Speaker’s office will inherit the same harsh reality that led to McCarthy’s ouster. The only difference is that McCarthy’s successor will have even less negotiating leverage against a House Freedom Caucus capable of removing an uncooperative Speaker at will. That’s a lofty amount of power, and caucus member Rep. Matt Gaetz has proven he can wield it effectively, assisted by the GOP’s razor-thin House margin. Any future Speaker will in effect become one member of the Freedom Caucus’s politburo — or they’ll quickly find themselves exiting stage (far) right.”
Max Burns, The Hill
“Once a new speaker is chosen, the House will have less than 45 days to avert yet another standoff over a shutdown, and members of good will in both parties will again need to show that they are willing and able to compromise; the Democrats could permit more spending on border security, and Republicans should continue the vital flow of aid to Ukraine, among other issues… Bipartisan compromise [is] the sole path to governing in the United States in 2023.”
Editorial Board, New York Times
