Matt Gaetz threatens to oust McCarthy as House speaker in fiery floor speech
Firebrand Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) on Tuesday threatened to move to oust House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) if he doesn’t comply with his commitments to GOP hardliners.
Gaetz vowed to go ahead with the motion to vacate the chair if McCarthy allows a stopgap measure or continuing resolution to receive a vote on the floor,
“No continuing resolutions, individual spending bills, votes on balanced budgets and term limits,” Gaetz warned.
“Subpoenas for Hunter Biden and the members of the Biden family. Impeach Joe Biden. Do these things or face a motion to vacate the chair.”
McCarthy has indicated he supports a continuing resolution to forestall a government shutdown by the month’s end.
Every fiscal year, Congress has to fund the government, otherwise it shuts down. During the debt ceiling fight, both parties agreed to fund the government via 12 appropriations bills instead of a massive omnibus bill.
But Congress remains a far cry away from accomplishing that before the fiscal year concludes. This is why many lawmakers have favored a continuing resolution to keep the government open and buy more time.
Even Gaetz acknowledged that reality in his floor speech.
“There is no way to pass all the appropriations bills now,” Gaetz conceded. “And it’s not like we didn’t know when Sept. 30 was going to show up on the calendar.”
Should Congress fail to act by Sept. 30 either through the 12 appropriations bills or via continuing resolution, the government will shut down.
Complicating passage of the appropriations bills is a vast disagreement between the House and Senate on spending levels.
Although the two chambers agreed to top-line spending levels in the Fiscal Responsibility Act which ended the debt ceiling impasse, McCarthy has caved to pressure conservative hardliners and tasked his appropriators to craft thinner bills.
McCarthy’s right flank, namely the House Freedom Caucus, has clamored for even deeper cuts in spending.
A motion to vacate only necessitates one vote to initiate and would only need a few Republicans to band together with Democrats to oust him, given the GOP’s wafer-thin 222 to 212-seat majority.
On Monday, McCarthy downplayed the threat from Gaetz, who mused about teaming up with Democrats to boot him from the speakership.
“Look, Matt’s Matt,” McCarthy said.
Gaetz, who is under an ethics investigation that his allies have faulted McCarthy for, voted “present” for McCarthy earlier this year to help end his grovel for the gavel, which took a historically unprecedented 15 votes.
To break the impasse and claim the speakership, McCarthy cut a multitude of deals with GOP hardliners. Gaetz put him on notice Tuesday.
“Mr. Speaker, you are out of compliance with the agreement that allowed you to assume this role. The path forward for the House of Representatives is to either bring you into immediate total compliance or remove you,” Gaetz added.
Earlier in the day Tuesday, McCarthy took a step toward one of Gaetz’s demands and announced that he was directing an impeachment inquiry into President Biden.
In doing so, McCarthy flouted his prior public commitment that “if we move forward with an impeachment inquiry, it would occur through a vote on the floor of the People’s House and not through a declaration by one person.”
The House reconvened Tuesday after a six-week recess and has 11 days in its legislative calendar before the end of the month.
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