Historic first in the American Congress. The Republican leader of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, was ousted from his post on Tuesday, October 3. Victim of fratricidal quarrels within his party, he had already been elected to the lower house after fifteen rounds of voting and a series of humiliations last January. After a tense debate between conservatives in the chamber, 216 elected officials voted to dismiss him, including eight Republicans, against 210.
Kevin McCarthy thus seems to have paid for the fierce hatred of the famous ultra-conservative parliamentary group “Freedom Caucus” made up of around forty Southern Republicans, unofficially led by Matt Gaetz, elected right-winger from Florida and author of the impeachment motion. “The reason for this vote is that no one trusted him anymore,” he told the assembly. The elected official has been maintaining his rivalry for weeks with Kevin McCarthy over the debates on the federal state budget. He called on Kevin McCarthy to adopt bills providing for deep budget cuts, but the latter preferred to maintain government funding for 45 days to avoid a “shutdown” of the American federal administration.
Like Matt Gaetz, the other elected officials from the radical fringe of the Good Old Party (GOP) that he rallied – Ken Buck (Colorado), Tim Burchett (Tennessee), Eli Crane (Arizona), Bob Good (Virginia), Nancy Mace (South Carolina) and Matt Rosendale (Montana) – cited the national debt and broken promises to the House Republican Party as reasons for voting to impeach McCarthy. L’Express paints a portrait of some of them.
Matt Gaetz
At 41, this elected official from Florida, until then relatively little known to the general public – at least for his parliamentary work – saw his notoriety change in dimension with this resounding blow. In January 2023, during the obstacle course that was the election of Kevin McCarthy to the House, Matt Gaetz stood out among the “Never Kevin” (“anti-Kevin”), not wishing that McCarthy takes on this position of high responsibility.
Before this tumultuous episode, the name of Matt Gaetz was often associated with several cases. He was suspected of having had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl, for whom he allegedly paid for air travel between several states, according to the New York Times. An accusation that he rejected, saying he was a victim of the establishment. He has also been accused of possible embezzlement of public funds, facts for which an investigation by the ethics committee of the House of Representatives has been carried out for two years. But also illegal drug use and drunk driving.
Politically, Matt Gaetz is opposed to abortion “without exception”, he is for a reduction in public spending and taxes. He is also a defender of the gun lobby, propagator of the Great Replacement conspiracy theory and openly climate skeptic.
Bob Good
At 58, Bob Good is one of the radical Republicans on immigration issues. He is against the law of the soil and wishes to make English the official language of the United States. He also wants to prohibit access to school or health care for foreigners in an irregular situation. When it comes to the economy, he also opposes tax increases.
In 2015, Bob Good was elected to the Campbel County Board of Supervisors. During his mandate from 2016 to 2019, he focused in particular on social issues and condemned the legalization of same-sex marriage.
Matt Rosendale
Elected Republican from the state of Montana to the United States Congress in 2020, Matt Rosendale, 62, joined the far-right parliamentary group “Freedom Caucus” since its creation in 2015. After the attack on the Capitol in January 2021, he voted, along with 146 other Republican elected officials, to annul the results of the presidential elections unfavorable to Donald Trump.
Last March, Matt Rosendale was at the heart of a controversy after a photo of him alongside two neo-Nazis was discovered. In his defense, he justified that he did not know the political opinions of the two men.