The Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy was ousted by a handful of hand-liner Republican leaders Wednesday (October 4), leaving the chamber without a leader and ushering in chaos. This is the first time ever that a House Speaker has lost a no-confidence vote — the final tally stood at 216-210, with eight Republicans voting with 208 Democrats to end McCarthy’s tumultuous nine-month-long leadership of the Republican majority in the lower chamber of Congress. McCarthy has told reporters he will not rerun to claim the position. “I fought for what I believe in,” he said. “I believe I can continue to fight, but maybe in a different manner.” The House has been adjourned for the week and might reconvene on October 10 to discuss McCarthy’s successors. Given the deep polarisation within not only the House but also the Republican party, the path to electing a new Speaker remains uncertain. How McCarthy lost his job A day after Matt Gaetz, a far-right Republican representative from Florida, moved a motion to remove McCarthy from the speakership, the House voted to snatch away the speaker’s gavel from the California Republican. McCarthy had the support of a vast majority of Republicans but it wasn’t enough to thwart his ouster. Currently, the Republican party has a slim majority in the chamber — there are 222 GOP members and 208 Democrat members. This means that McCarthy could have afforded to lose only five Republicans, instead he lost eight. None of the democrats voted in his support. Why some Republican leaders rebelled against McCarthy Gaetz brought the motion to dismiss McCarthy, criticising him for mishandling government spending and budget fights since the GOP took over the House in January. Notably, the development came just after McCarthy over the weekend pushed through a bill with the help of House Democrats to narrowly avert a government shutdown. The Florida Republican also accused McCarthy of cutting a “secret side deal” with US President Joe Biden on providing additional funding to Ukraine, which has become a source of outrage on the right. McCarthy denied the existence of any such deal. The motion found support among the most conservative Republican House members, who have been a thorn in McCarthy’s side since before he was elected Speaker. In January, McCarthy got the position only after he gave numerous concessions to the far right to win their votes — it took him a historic 15 rounds of voting to get the gavel. For instance, McCarthy promised to allow any member to bring a motion to remove the Speaker from the leadership position. The concession ultimately came back to bite the California Republican, when he defied the far right flank to collaborate with Democrats in order to prevent the government shutdown. Much like in the past nine months, McCarthy made repeated attempts to appease the rebels, but no one came to his rescue. “He failed to master the art of corralling a deeply divided Republican majority that could never quite bring itself to rally behind him when it came time to choose normalcy over chaos. With the GOP base increasingly hungry for insurgency and confrontation, Mr McCarthy found himself out of step, a problem that is likely to plague any candidate who tries to succeed him,” a report by The New York Times said. Why the House Democrats didn’t support McCarthy The Democrats unanimously voted to oust McCarthy. There are several reasons for their dislike of the Republican leader. McCarthy shares a close relationship with former US President Donald Trump. He recently launched an impeachment inquiry into Biden for benefiting from his son Hunter Biden’s business dealings, among other issues. However, as The Washington Post reported, the last straw was when McCarthy blamed Democrats for the near-shutdown. “He dug his own grave,” a source told the newspaper about why Democrats didn’t save him. Who can become the next Speaker McCarthy has been temporarily replaced by Patrick T McHenry, a Republican representative from North Carolina. He will remain the acting Speaker until Republicans can present a nominee for the job. As mentioned before, McCarthy has already said he won’t attempt to get the speakership again. Gaetz is also not a contender as some media reports have said he might run for Florida governor. The name of Steve Scalise, a Republican representative from Louisiana, seems to be on top of the potential candidates' list. He is the number two House Republican and has long been favoured to take over as the House Speaker. Scalise, however, is undergoing cancer treatment and it isn’t clear if he would accept the added responsibility of the speakership. Some hard liner Republican members, including Gaetz, have pointed out that the Constitution does not explicitly say the Speaker must be a member of the House, but everyone so far has been. To become the House Speaker, a nominee will need a majority of the chamber, which is 218 votes. Given how difficult it was for McCarthy to get the gavel in the first place, it seems to be a daunting task for any candidate to win — they will have to ensure to either get the support of far-right House members or some of the Democrats. What happens now The House of Representatives has entered an uncharted territory. With no clear candidate to take over McCarthy, no one knows for how long the chamber would remain disrupted. Moreover, it remains to be seen how much authority the acting Speaker McHenry can wield to run the House. The Washington Post reported that some analysts believe the chamber “could pass some legislation that the Constitution deems ‘necessary and appropriate,’ but most other matters might have to wait.” Moreover, the stakes are higher because the House has about 40 days to avert another potential government shutdown. The bill that was passed over the weekend was only a temporary measure to delay the shutdown. Therefore, the chamber will need to come to a resolution quickly.
