Gaetz’s Threats To Oust McCarthy Ramp Up as Shutdown Looms in Congress

As the government moves closer to the October 1 deadline to fund the government, saber-rattling from Congressman Matt Gaetz, who is threatening to oust Speaker McCarthy, is bringing a meltdown scenario for the House into focus.Mr. Gaetz took to the House floor Tuesday to express his concern over government spending and to put the speaker on notice, saying that “The one thing I agree with my Democrat colleagues on is that for the last eight months this House has been poorly led.”“We have to do something about it. And you know what? My Democrat colleagues will have an opportunity to do something about that, too,” Mr. Gaetz said. “And we will see if they bail out our failed speaker.”In response, Mr. McCarthy, in conversations with reporters, dismissed Mr. Gaetz’s threat, saying, “people have got to get over personal differences.”“He never voted for me to start out with,” Mr. McCarthy said. “I don’t assume he’s changing his position. He said a lot of things and we made it through it.”While Mr. Gaetz has been threatening to file a motion to vacate, a motion any representative can file to call a vote to remove the speaker, for months, his efforts have ramped up in recent weeks. An independent reporter at the House, Matt Laslo, reports via Twitter that drafts of a motion to vacate have been appearing in House bathrooms, apparently coming from Mr. Gaetz’s office.There’s no count on who might support a motion to vacate the chair and who might vote against it. There’s also no clear replacement for Mr. McCarthy.However, there could be just enough support to remove the speaker if the same handful of conservative House Republicans who are pushing for spending cuts are joined by Democrats to support a motion to vacate. These conservatives propose adopting a budget with lower spending levels than what the speaker agreed to with President Biden in their deal to avoid a debt ceiling crisis.In a scenario where Mr. McCarthy is ousted, the House Clerk would then be required to select a name from a secret list of candidates who would act as a speaker pro tempore.Once this happens, the House would, as it did in January, have to elect a new speaker before it could take up any other business, including reopening the government.House conservatives appear to be unconcerned whether a speaker election during a government shutdown would take a toll on congressional Republicans’ public image. Mr. Gaetz is signaling that he’s willing to try to oust Mr. McCarthy if even one Democrat votes for a budget proposal in the House — a proposal that also must be passed by the Senate and signed by Mr. Biden to be enacted.“If Speaker McCarthy needs Democrat votes to underwrite Joe Biden’s debt, advance Joe Biden’s spending, and maintain control of the gavel for himself, then that’s who he really works for,” Mr. Gaetz said in a tweet.He added, “And if he works for them, I will show up every day on the House floor and I will lead the true conservative, Republican resistance to the Biden-McCarthy-Jeffries uniparty that really runs this country.”

Gaetz’s Threats To Oust McCarthy Ramp Up as Shutdown Looms in Congress

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