As of Tuesday, October 3rd, 2023, Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, became the first House speaker to be removed from their position. The House voted 216 to 210 with eight Republicans siding with Democrats to remove California Republican, Kevin McCarthy. On the previous Monday, Florida Republican Matt Gaetz forced a vote on a “motion to vacate” to reject McCarthy from his position. But why was Kevin McCarthy ousted as House Speaker?
The answer to that question is rivalry. Matt Gaetz and Kevin McCarthy have had resentment for each other building up for months before McCarthy was removed. The feud started in January 2023, with the first showdown for speaker. Gaetz demanded McCarthy to agree to impractical priorities such as a Democrat-led Senate and a Democratic president. Later Gaetz made McCarthy go through 15 rounds of voting before he could be elected as speaker of the House.
In May 2023, Kevin McCarthy hit a deal with Democrats about the idea of raising the debt ceiling to avoid “economic disaster.” In this deal, Democrats agreed to limit spending on programs like food stamps and work requirements for cash assistance. The Republicans, including Kevin McCarthy, dropped their ask to cut back on Medicaid and Social Security spending.
While McCarthy supposedly did help avoid a possible disastrous federal default, Gaetz saw this as a violation of their agreement because of McCarthy’s willingness to work with Democrats. And then arrived the events of early October.
On Monday, October 2nd, Matt Gaetz forced a vote to remove McCarthy. Matt Gaetz claimed that McCarthy had made a secret side deal to provide more funding for Ukraine which many Republicans were against. “Baiting Republicans to vote for a continuing resolution without Ukraine money, saying that we were going to jam the Senate on Ukraine, while at the same time making a “secret deal.” Matt Gaetz told CNN.
Gaetz says that McCarthy has lost everyone’s trust. He told CNN, “We need to move on with new leadership that can be trustworthy.” Meanwhile, Kevin McCarthy announced on October 3rd that he will not be running for reelection and he made his feelings known about Gaetz and his motivations to oust him.”Look, you all know Matt Gaetz. You know it was personal. It had nothing to do about spending,” McCarthy said.
These events may leave people with tons of questions. What happens now? Who will run? How long will we be without a speaker? These questions are left unanswered but hopefully, this will be all figured out.
