The week promises to be turbulent among the Republicans in the American Congress. Florida elected official Matt Gaetz, a leader of the hard right, said this Sunday, October 1, that he wanted to dismiss the President of the House of Representatives, from his own party.
“I fully intend to file a motion to impeach President (Kevin) McCarthy this week,” Matt Gaetz said on CNN. “Go ahead,” Kevin McCarthy immediately replied on CBS. “I will survive” this fratricidal initiative, he assured regarding this threat of recourse to an “evacuation motion”.
The object of Matt Gaetz’s wrath? The fact that Kevin McCarthy managed to repel the immediate threat of a “shutdown” with the support of the Democrats. In a final attempt to avoid the paralysis of the American administration, a resolution proposed by Kevin McCarthy was adopted on Saturday evening by Congress just three hours before the “shutdown”, with the support of the Democrats.
“No one trusts Kevin McCarthy”
With other Trumpist elected officials, Matt Gaetz is campaigning for drastic reductions in state spending. He accused Kevin McCarthy on Sunday of “lying to House conservatives.” “Kevin McCarthy’s goal was to make several contradictory promises to delay everything […] and ultimately, break down the spending guardrails,” he said.
“I believe we need to move forward, with a new leader who can be trusted,” he said. “The only thing everyone has in common is that no one trusts Kevin McCarthy,” Matt Gaetz said.
In response, the Speaker of the House of Representatives accused the Florida elected official of being “more interested in television interviews than in action.” “If he’s angry because he tried to force a shutdown on us, and I made sure the administration wasn’t paralyzed, then let’s have this argument,” he said. coward.
Republicans rushed to the aid of their leader in the House. An elected official from New York, Mike Lawler, judged that trying to dismiss Kevin McCarthy would only disrupt the work of Congress at a time when it must try to prevent a “shutdown” in mid-November. According to Mike Lawler, the group of Trumpists is “the reason we had to work with House Democrats.” “It’s not Kevin McCarthy’s fault, it’s Matt Gaetz’s fault,” a “deceitful” man, he said.
A threat that has been hovering for months
Kevin McCarthy and the Republican right wing have been fighting internally for months. During a closed-door meeting of House Republicans on September 14, Kevin McCarthy challenged Matt Gaetz to present an “evacuation motion”, recalls the Guardian.
Kevin McCarthy was elected House speaker in January 2023, when Trumpists finally agreed to support him in exchange for huge concessions, including a return to allowing individual lawmakers to call a vote to impeach the House speaker . This was a change from the rules in place under her Democratic predecessor, Nancy Pelosi. At that time, a majority of a party had to support a motion to nullify in order to introduce it.
Matt Gaetz acknowledged that the outcome of his initiative was not sealed. If Kevin McCarthy is still Speaker of the House by the end of next week, he said, it will mean he will have been supported by Democrats.
A position that hangs by a thread
Although most House Republicans still favor retaining Kevin McCarthy as speaker, Matt Gaetz’s desire poses a threat to his tenure due to the slim majority Republicans have in the House, 221 seats against. 212 for Democrats. In other words, if Kevin McCarthy wants to keep his job, he can’t afford to lose more than four votes, reports the Guardianwhile voting requires a simple majority.
Will Democrats vote against Kevin McCarthy? Nothing is decided. Progressive elected official Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said she would vote to dismiss Kevin McCarthy, considering him “very weak” in his position. “It’s up to Republicans to determine their own leadership and solve their own problems. It’s not up to Democrats to save Republicans, especially from themselves,” she said on CNN.
Democrats are upset that he recently announced that the House was opening an impeachment inquiry against Joe Biden, despite no evidence of wrongdoing, notes the New York Times. Most Democrats view Kevin McCarthy as an unreliable figure who spent months catering to the whims of his right wing. He only turned to the Democrats when his back was against the wall, as in the spring to avoid a default on the federal debt and again on Saturday to avoid the “shutdown”.
Joe Biden, for his part, did not want to comment on the support to be given to Kevin McCarthy by the Democrats. “I leave that to the (Democratic) leadership of the House and Senate,” he said.
“I will continue to pursue this goal”
Matt Gaetz shows his determination. “I might not get enough votes the first time, but I might get them before the 15th round,” he said on ABC. A reference to the number of attempts it took for Kevin McCarthy to secure his presidency in January. He added: “I am relentless and will continue to pursue this goal.”
As explained the Guardian, the motion to nullify was first used in 1910, when Republican President Joseph Cannon himself introduced the motion in order to force his own party’s critics to decide whether or not they supported him, based on the House archives. This motion had failed.
In 1997, Republican President Newt Gingrich was threatened with a motion to cancel. He had succeeded in appeasing the resistance and avoiding the tabling of a real resolution. But he resigned in 1998 after disappointing results in the midterm elections.
In 2015, Republican Rep. Mark Meadows filed a motion to overturn his own Republican House Speaker, John Boehner. The plan was not put to a vote, but John Boehner resigned a few months later, citing the difficulties of managing a growing radical conservative faction within his party. Will this situation repeat itself soon?