It all started in January 2023, when the new Congress was sworn in the Republicans had regained the House by a small margin. Kevin McCarthy was the “heir apparent” to be Speaker of the House, but the problem soon became clear: the so-called “Suicide Caucus,” the far-right lunatic fringe House members, hated McCarthy and did all they could to oppose him. To eventually win their support, McCarthy made a series of concessions to them which sealed his fate. The fact that McCarthy was able to keep the Republicans in some semblance of order for the better part of nine months is extraordinary, but the concessions he made were like the sword of Damocles over his head.
In the past month, McCarthy tried to appease the Suicide Caucus by backing their efforts to – LMAO – impeach Joe Biden for no discernible reason. Then McCarthy didn’t have enough Republican votes to pass a simple budget extension over the weekend, so he went begging to the Democratic caucus, and together they managed to finagle a clean, 45-day budget extension. That’s when the MAGA sh-t hit the Nazi fan. The Suicide Caucus was incandescent with rage that McCarthy SPOKE (!) to Democrats (!!) and worked out a deal with them (!!!). The lunatics decided to use some of McCarthy’s concessions against him, and that creepy human trafficker Matt Gaetz led the charge. Soon it was all-out war within the Republican majority, MAGA vs. MAGA, Nazi vs. Nazi, and in the end, McCarthy was ousted as Speaker.
The House on Tuesday voted to oust Kevin McCarthy from the speakership, a move without precedent in modern history that left the chamber without a leader and plunged it into chaos.
Democrats joined with a small group of hard-liners in Mr. McCarthy’s own party to strip the California Republican of the speaker’s gavel in a 216 to 210 vote. It was the culmination of a bitter power struggle between Mr. McCarthy and members of a far-right faction who tried to block his ascent to the speakership in January and have tormented him ever since, trying to stymie his efforts to keep the government funded and the nation from defaulting on its debt.
Before the vote, a surreal Republican-against-Republican debate played out on the House floor as members of the hard-right clutch of rebels railed against their own speaker and verbally sparred with Mr. McCarthy’s defenders. Democrats sat silently.
A vacancy in the speaker’s chair essentially paralyzes the House until a successor is chosen, according to multiple procedural experts. That promises to tee up another potentially messy speaker election at a time when Congress has just over 40 days to avert another potential government shutdown.
Apparently, there were some murmurs among House Democrats about whether some of them should help out McCarthy. But then Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called a closed-door meeting on Tuesday and told his caucus not to lift a finger to help that MAGA dumbass. In fact, McCarthy had screwed over Democrats so many times, including just this past Sunday, when McCarthy went on CBS and claimed that Democrats *wanted* a shutdown… right after he begged them for their support in getting a clean extension passed. The eight Republicans who voted to remove McCarthy: Andy Biggs of Arizona, Ken Buck of Colorado, Tim Burchett of Tennessee, Eli Crane of Arizona, Matt Gaetz of Florida, Bob Good of Virginia, Nancy Mace of South Carolina and Matt Rosendale of Montana.
https://t.co/koBy3iTrJJ pic.twitter.com/1vxR8tTcRk
— Henry White (@Henry_White1996) October 3, 2023
It’s October 3rd. pic.twitter.com/3ILgqtQEID
— The Democrats (@TheDemocrats) October 3, 2023
Sure, Kevin McCarthy may have humiliated himself for Trump. Yes, it took him 15 tries to become Speaker. And, of course, he had to beg the dumbest, most racist people in Congress to vote for him. But on the bright side, he ended up with absolutely nothing. https://t.co/ztF8WOWZdB
— Mike Drucker (@MikeDrucker) October 3, 2023
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
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- Speaker of the House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy offers remarks on the current debt limit crisis negotiations in Statuary Hall at the US Capitol in Washington, DC. Featuring: Speaker Of The House Kevin McCarthy Where: Washington, District of Columbia, United States When: 24 May 2023 Credit: CNP/startraksphoto.com
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- Speaker of the House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy (Republican of California) offers remarks following passage of H.R. 3746, the Bipartisan Budget Agreement, at the US Capitol in Washington, DC. Featuring: Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy Where: Washington, District of Columbia, United States When: 31 May 2023 Credit: CNP/startraksphoto.com
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- Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy (Republican of California) offers remarks and introduces Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at the US Capitol in Washington, DC. Featuring: Giorgia Meloni, Kevin McCarthy Where: Washington, District of Columbia, United States When: 27 Jul 2023 Credit: CNP/startraksphoto.com
Deserved, as it should be. He could’ve destroyed the power of those nine extremists by simply saying he would work with Democrats on certain things. By stating outright he wouldn’t, he put himself at their mercy and gave himself no leverage. Literally failed power politics 101.
It upsets me that there are some blaming the Ds for McCarthy being ousted. I try to tell myself they would do it no matter what the outcome. However, as much as I cannot stand Gaetz (he should not be in Congress, he should be in jail), I did love when McCarthy said bring it on and Gaetz replied he just did! Did McCarthy really believe he was safe from all?
The part of personal responsibility never ever ever takes personal responsibility for its actions. All it does is scream, create chaos, and point fingers. It is maddening, and enough morons lap it up that they keep getting elected.
Yeah the “blaming the Ds for the Rs actions” got to me, as well. If McCarthy had actually worked with them and stopped the nonsense, he could have had the reputation of starting bipartisanship again. Instead this power-mad twerp brought on his own destruction. The fact that he is gone might not be a blessing because though McCarthy was a weak weasely back-stabber, it’s going to be tough to replace him and I’m kind of nervous about the Rs doing something during Feinstein’s funeral. The governmental workers need a replacement for their paychecks in a couple of weeks.
McCarthy really thought the Dems were going to save him again, like we did with funding the government.
Dems didn’t save McCarthy. They saved us from a shutdown. Yesterday they were like 🙈🙉🙊🍿.
It isn’t the responsibility of Dems to elect the republican Speaker. McCarthy knew they would all be against him.
@Megan I understand its not their responsibility but I still stand by my statement that he thought at least a few would cross over to help him (and based on the reports of phone calls “begging” Dems to do just that, he was expecting a handful.)
McCarthy didn’t beg any Democrats for their vote. He didn’t do so in January and he certainly didn’t do so yesterday.If any Democrat had voted for him more than eight Republicans would have voted against him.
Actually I read somewhere that Kevin was approached by Democrats to try and make a deal since he’s probably the least worst C. difficile infection Republican. *He turned them down.* Then he bragged about it on TV!
^ THIS ^ The democrats are not playing this like a sports game & would have voted to keep him, if he agreed to work with them, but he did not.
The reason they ousted him is what is sick. It is their JOB to come to an agreement between parties and keep the government running.
THIS! But the joke is on them, because this is the first time it’s been done and now – well the next one can be removed too just like THAT.
And now I really wonder what’s in store. Will a 100% true gridlock finally open voters eyes?
Waiting, so as not to thread-jack, for a Nancy Pelosi follow-up from Kaiser but will say, what’s happening now re: Republican petty, right now this minute, is reaching for a lower low
@Carrot: If you’re talking about the hideaway, it’s not that big a deal. Yes, it’s petty and stupid to kick her out while she’s in California, but she has staff who can – and did- pack up her stuff. And her main office in Longworth remains.
Interesting choice, though, by the temp speaker minutes on the job. He’s essentially showing that his party still doesn’t intend to work with their colleagues in a civil manner. Sucks for the country for sure.
Don’t let the cute bow tie fool you, Patrick McHenry is a noxious little turd. A shallow dive into his resume has him running an anti-Hillary website for the 2016 election, being a snot to Elizabeth Warren when she was testifying in front of his committee, and he once kicked a reporter out of his office because the reporter was gay. So evicting the Speaker Emerita out of her ceremonial office while she was at a funeral for another strong woman is entirely on brand for him. And he bangs a gavel like a baby throwing a tantrum. Having him be, temporarily at least, second in line to the Presidency will keep me up at night.
Watching the Republican party implode has been so interestingly delicious to watch! The next several election cycles will be fascinating to observe (I will be voting blue through and through).
Kevin, Kevin, Kevin, Kevin. You sold your soul to the Devil, even after he sent armed insurrectionists to kill you. Even after you begged him to call off the attackers and he rebuked and implied you weren’t upset enough over his election loss.
https://www.politifact.com/article/2021/apr/26/what-happened-during-jan-6-call-between-donald-tru/
What did it get you? You’re out of a job. You lost any power you might’ve had and your reputation is in tatters.
As much as I would like to enjoy the schadenfreude of it all… and I do somewhat… this whole spectacle just pushed us deeper into a hole… and they don’t even have a person to elect in his place.
Kevin did this to himself. But we all are gonna lose in his game of chicken.
(I did enjoy the comment… I think from McGovern? That said calling this a clown show was a disservice to clowns.)
This is my take as well. The glue eaters are flexing their power and any new leader will continue to be beholden to them. I’d like to think that the next speaker will insure their position by working with dems but I doubt it goes that way – they’ll just lean in to the reprobates that fill the republicant party
I agree it is delicious watching the GOP literally eat each other alive, but the fact remains now that the House has no Speaker, and they vacated for a week. Literally, nothing can get accomplished in the meantime, and God knows how long it may take them to elect another Speaker when they reconvene next week. McCarthy is a spineless coward and never should have been Speaker to begin with, but ultimately this is utterly embarrassing and pathetic to see our government implode like this – primarily due to this extremist MAGA Caucus, who is holding them hostage. Make no mistake, this is Trump’s party and the result of him.
“If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed…and we deserve it”
– Lindsey Graham, May 2016
They should have to operate like a business and keep their butts in their seats until they can come to terms.
@AmyB: I stand behind no man in my hatred of Trump but the current iteration of the Republican party, with the obstructionism, the dumbness, the incapability of governing didn’t just appear with Trump. It was there when they pledged to vote “no” on any Democratic bills, it’s been there whenever they’ve embraced extremism on abortion, gun laws, voting rights, etc., it was there when they embraced Sarah Palin (with her credentials!) as a prospective 2nd in charge of the country, or when they obstructed President Obama over common-sense matters, over the interests of their own supporters, and over the country’s full faith and credit. It’s been there for a while, which is what made it so easy and such a natural for Trump to take over. In this case, no seduction was even necessary, the Republicans just gave themselves to Trump by the time he came along.
Sadly, now they’ve trained their voters to accept extremist behavior (and the odd criminal record here and there) from their candidates so that Congress is strewn with elected members who still don’t understand that when they get in there they must work and negotiate people who have different ideas, and that’s part of their job, which is to produce for the American people.
Well, it’s up to us as citizens to fight for our country by helping to get the vote out. Postcard writing campaigns, calling and canvassing to make the most of this mess that the rebublicans have made. We have to vote them out and make democrats the majority in the House and the Senate.
💯 agree Girl Ninja, we have to vote in majorities for the House and Senate. The House looks attainable while the Senate landscape looks fkin BRUTAL. A lot of vulnerable seats.
Agreed & it’s scary to watch because those are the men in power. I believe they will enjoy a gridlock & seeing the suffering of their constituents, because they will then blame other vulnerable people, gain power & get rich while college girls need to continue to hustle for gas money to survive. This all keeps the pipeline going for men like Matt Gaetz & his bros.
You’re almost there Hillary. Think deeper and more insidious. They wanted the shutdown. McCarthy stopped it last minute. So they ousted him. Why did they want a shut down of the government? Think about the 1/6 coup attempt that failed. They regrouped. Think Reichstag fire. Shut down the government. Hostile takeover. Their MAGA God they can put in power and erase his judicial woes. This small group of people that want to bend the country to their will. You said it’s scary. It is. But way more scary than even the commentary here is acknowledging.
A sane person would have stopped trying to vie for the position after 4 or 5 votes. This is what he gets for making deals and selling himself to the hard right. And what is sad is that these hard right lunatics are holding the entire country hostage.
They have set the precedent that this can be done again so they need to watch themselves – there is no honor among thieves.
The only good thing is that the Democrats didn’t bow and played hard ball. McCarthy could have saved himself had he not lied about what happened. He is a fool and deserves to be removed.
Yes, the implosion was bound to happen and in the record books Democrats stood their ground. It’s the only way to get to through the mess republicans began many years ago to side with the very wealthy.
K. McCarthy has also wanted to be Speaker for the longest time. He finally stepped aside the last time because he was becoming a laughingstock when his, let’s call it his slowness on his feet, and his inarticulate manner because too well known. I think that’s when Paul Ryan “reluctantly” took up the gavel, but not even public humiliation and an eye-watering 15 vote count in January 2023 would have stopped McCarthy from running for Speaker. The man is not too swift and that’s public knowledge.
So funny. Who’s replacing him?
this is the epitome of the face-eating-leopards political party meme.
Apparently some Rs were calling dems “begging” for them to save McCarthy. and maybe some would have done it, but Jeffries proved that, like Pelosi, he can hold his party in line – and the nail in his coffin was his interview on Sunday. No, you don’t come begging us for help and then blame us on national TV.
Who’s next for Speaker? I don’t know. there is an election in a year and not every Republican is voted in from a solidly red MAGA district. So a MAGA hardliner as speaker isnt going to be able to control the Republicans anymore than McCarthy was – there’s a reason he didn’t give the suicide caucus everything they wanted.
Anyway favorite tweet from this mess was something like “McCarthy just learned that Pelosi only made it look easy” with all the comments about how she made it look easy backwards and in high heels.
I love that quote and, so true!
There were even folks on Fox News pointing out that Nancy was also Speaker when there was only a five seat majority and she managed to not only stay in power, but actually pass meaningful legislation.
Speaker Nancy was an adult, and she came to work and pass legislation, not throw bombs, or “win” the news cycles.
He was so desperate for the position that he basically caved to the extremist in his party from the outset. It was going to be impossible to make this thing run. So many accounts I have been reading about it talk about him showing so much weakness and in between lying to both the Dems and the R’s that was always going to leave him dead in the water.
I’m sure his Sunday shows round did him no favours with the Democrats.
Kevin, you stupid fool.
He and Biden reached an agreed upon budget months ago, but he reneges on it because of MAGA.
When he gets Democrats to side with him to pass a temporary budget for the next 45 days, this bitch goes on interviews BLAMING THE DEMOCRATS in holding up the process.
Then he arrogantly says he won’t work with Democrats to save his ass from being kicked off the lectern.
And oh yeah, dummy also decided to call for impeachment of Biden because…the lunatic fringe.
I watched Rep. Clyburn lay it out to McCarthy on MSNBC: you did this to yourself and betrayed the people who could have helped you keep your gavel. That same gavel BTW he once threatened to hit Pelosi with once he became SPOTH. Nancy must be somewhere sitting back in a comfy chair, feet up, drinking a glass of Chardonnay right about now.
I don’t like this at all because even though Kevin is weak minded and foolish, this moves empowers Gaetz. I want Gaetz kicked out of office, Congress, even out of the country if possible. Our country is being held up by a MAGA crazies led by him and that needs to end now.
Correct. It’s all over Twitter that he said he spoke to the former president and the move was approved – or something like that. These MAGA’s need to be voted out. This is not good for the country and we keep spinning out of control and the entire world can see our dysfunction.
This is what I don’t understand. How the heck did Gaetz get so powerful, if he is? Why do I have to see his ugly mug & listen to his smug voice on TV news now?
I look forward to the release of the Ethics Committee investigation into Gaetz. And seeing if they go through with expelling him from congress. McCarthy has the time and it shouldn’t be hard getting a 2/3 majority vote.
Is that investigation going to be released and when??? I don’t understand why he’s not in jail.
I don’t know why the prosecution was dropped, I think it wasn’t a slam dunk case without the cooperation of witnesses, and I think some of the girls didn’t want to testify. Which is their right, it would put them in the maga cross hairs.
McCarthy put our over the weekend that Gaetz would be expelled via the ethics stuff if he went through with the speaker challenge. Let’s see if McCarthy has the backbone to follow through for once. I think he does, it would be easy and fun compared to what he’s been doing. Also he could’ve avoided this if he hadn’t trashed the Dems.
Me either.
When the dust settles the House GOP is going to put someone much worse in the Speaker’s seat.
Exactly…
Well, apparently there are serious talks about it being Trump. I wish I was fucking kidding.
From Fox News/Sean Hannity: “Sources are telling me that some Republicans have been in contact with and have started an effort to draft former Trump to be the next speaker and I have been told that Trump might be open to helping the Republican party at least in the short term if necessary.”
Who the hell knows how true this is, since it’s coming from Hannity/Fox News, but there have been several Republicans tweeting (like MTG, and others) that they want to nominate Trump. FFS, if Republicans are considering this, they truly have lost their minds.
AmyB there’s no way that’s even a possibility. The ppl discussing it are the same eight that kicked McCarthy out. They’re just talking to keep the magats on their side. 217 votes are needed to be speaker and republicans only have that on a perfect day when all the stars are aligned. Nervous moderates from moderate districts won’t.
Oh, I know it’s not possible, but so laughable they are talking about it.
Never say never…no one thought Trump would actually be elected either. And apparently you do not have to be an elected member of the House to serve as speaker.
And I have never been so perplexed by something as the fanatical loyalty to the infantile conman Trump. Will never ever understand.
There’s a rule that The Speaker can’t be someone under indictment, so trump remains an impossible boogie man. We need to focus on real possibilities.
Wrong man for the job, more interested in saving himself than the American economy and people, just like the idiots in power here in the UK
So, the GOP aborted McCarthy. They didn’t let him go full term. Hypocrites.
LOL. Between your statement and the “Democrats sat silently” comment, this article had some good laughs in it.
The leopards ate well yesterday.
Maybe McCarthy just didn’t want the job anymore because he certainly didn’t fight to keep it. Angering the house dems he’d need on his side and allowing a same day vote?
So much chaos. It just doesn’t bode well for the country.
The audacity to ask for Democrats’ help lol. But more seriously, I pretty sure the next guy will be even worse.
Yet they seem to have no long game. McCarthy’s out — and good riddance. Yet those who pushed him out don’t seem to have even a shred of an actual plan — beyond extreme pettiness and what feels to me like trolling. Not only are they not fit to govern — they don’t even seem to want to govern. SMH
I’d totally pull out the popcorn and envision what Shakespeare or Lin Manuel Miranda could make of all this craziness — but it really is too critical to shrug off like that.
Fingers crossed for Jeffries as the Republicans implode. It’s unlikely, as is a Republican Speaker who’s not a current member of the House, but it’s hard to imagine any current members getting the votes.
First time in History 😀.
That party has literally been going down the dumps.
It absolutely blew my mind how many Republicans said this was the Democrats fault for voting against McCarthy. What? These people are unbelievable. But yes, I am enjoying (on one level) watch this party go up in smoke. I know someone who is a Republican (very conservative, but not a Trumper), and he told me he has never been so disgusted in his life. In his opinion, the Republicans look like a bunch of “enraged kindergarteners.” Nice description!
Always the Democrats at fault! At least several house dems are going on news shows to say that McCarthy told them that he did not need their help so they did not give any!
McCarthy thought he had it in the bag. He even waived the 48 hrs period where he could have shored up votes. But stupid is as stupid does. I wonder if he will go through with expelling Gaetez like he threatened.
As a side note, can you believe McHenry is 47? Being a conservative Christian sure does age you.
So, do we think that McCarthy wanted this outcome so that the House Ethics Committee can go after Gaetz? It’ll be interesting to see where that goes.
I don’t know how they’ll get another speaker, because anyone with an ounce of brains will not make deals with the idiots for votes.
Jim Jordon threw his name in the ring. He will make all the deals with those lunatics.
Mary L Trump said McCarthy lasted 27 Scaramuccis, lol!
And how many heads of lettuce? 🥬 😆
Apparently he is now on a revenge tour against the democrats (I guess they were supposed to keep him in the chair after all his betrayals of them ’cause, you know, he’s their leader) so he kicked Nancy and Steni out of their offices. These are senior members of the House, these people are truly, truly disgraceful.
McCarthy reneged on a deal with the President of the United States. The only person that his word has any value to now is his wife and that had to be shaky after all the Renee Ellmers rumors. What were Dems supposed to do with someone idiotic enough to sign his fate over to a caucus that included the likes of Marjorie Taylor Greene, Boebert, Gaetz, and about 5 dozen other notable psychopaths? Pray that one of them doesn’t threaten to initiate a motion to vacate in order to get Kevin to renege on another deal?