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  • McCarthy opens to returning as House Speaker amid Israel war

    McCarthy opens to returning as House Speaker amid Israel war

    Ousted United States House Speaker Rep. Kevin McCarthy yesterday said he is open to returning in a move to project unity amid the war in Israel.

    The deposed Republican leader said he would be willing to run as a consensus candidate to avoid a messy internal battle among GOP lawmakers.

    “Whatever the conference wants, I will do,” he told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.

    “I think we need to be strong. I think we need to be united.” McCarthy had previously said he would definitely not consider running for Speaker after he was ousted in a divisive fight last week.

    But he suggested that the war in Israel might force him to reconsider the idea of taking back the Speaker’s gavel.

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    “The conference has to make that decision. I’m still a member. I’m going to continue to fight and act,” McCarthy said.

    Republican lawmakers are expected to vote tomorrow on a potential replacement for McCarthy. The leading candidates are Rep. Jim Jordan, the Judiciary Committee chair, and Rep. Steve Scalise, who was McCarthy’s top lieutenant. Rep. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina is currently the interim Speaker. After the war broke out in Israel, a handful of Republicans floated McCarthy as a possible unity candidate.

    Some lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are concerned about the impact that a potentially protracted and bitter battle could have on assisting Israel as it battles Hamas in a full-blown war that erupted over the weekend.

    McCarthy was ousted last week in a historic vote of Congress after a small group of GOP hardliners turned on him.

    He lashed out again at the eight Republicans led by Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, who voted to remove him after he compromised with Democrats to avert a government shutdown.

  • McCarthy ouster vote ahead as Speaker confronts GOP critics

    McCarthy ouster vote ahead as Speaker confronts GOP critics

    • ‘I won’t cut a deal with Democrats’

    Speaker Kevin McCarthy is confronting his hard-right critics head-on yesterday as he faces a historic challenge to oust him from leadership.

    He insisted he will not cut a deal with Democrats to remain in power and setting the stage for an extraordinary and unpredictable showdown on the House floor. The Republican McCarthy’s fate is deeply uncertain as he faces what’s known as a “motion to vacate” from Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, a strident critic allied with Donald Trump.

    It would take the support of only a handful of Republicans from his slim majority to remove McCarthy as speaker if Democrats vote in favour alongside the conservative rebels.

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    Behind closed doors early yesterday, McCarthy told fellow Republicans: Let’s get on with it. “If I counted how many times someone wanted to knock me out, I would have been gone a long time ago,” McCarthy said at the Capitol after a private morning meeting.

    It’s a stunning moment for the embattled McCarthy that serves as the most severe challenge yet, a potential punishment sparked by his weekend decision to work with Democrats to keep the federal government open rather than risk a shutdown.

  • U.S. Speaker McCarthy removed

    U.S. Speaker McCarthy removed

    A United States House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was ousted from his leadership position in a historic vote yesterday after a far-right revolt over his reliance on Democrats to pass funding to avert a government shutdown.

    The final vote was 216-210, with eight Republicans joining all the Democrats to vote to remove McCarthy. It’s the first time a House speaker has been removed in a no-confidence vote.

    “The office of Speaker of the House of the United House of Representatives is hereby declared vacant,” said Rep. Steve Womack, who was presiding over the chamber.

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    Republican Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, a top ally of McCarthy’s and a member of the Financial Services Committee, was then appointed speaker pro tempore. The rules of the 118th Congress state that “in the case of a vacancy in the office of speaker, the next member” named on a list submitted by McCarthy to the clerk of the House in January will become speaker pro tempore until a speaker is elected.

    “The one thing that the White House, House Democrats and many of us on the conservative side of the Republican caucus would argue is the thing we have in common — Kevin McCarthy said something to all of us at one point or another that he didn’t really mean and never intended to live up to,” Gaetz said on the House floor yesterday ahead of the vote.

    Along with Gaetz, seven Republican members voted to oust McCarthy Reps. Andy Biggs, Ken Buck, Tim Burchett, Eli Crane, Bob Good, Nancy Mace and Matt Rosendale.