WhatsNew2Day – Latest News And Breaking Headlines
Kevin McCarthy’s ally Patrick McHenry temporarily took over the chairmanship of the House of Representatives on Tuesday after McCarthy became the first speaker in US history to be removed from office.
The embattled McCarthy in January, upon taking office, provided the clerk of the House of Representatives with a secret list of members who could take over temporarily if the office became vacant.
McHenry, a nine-term Republican from North Carolina, appeared to be the first name on McCarthy’s list.
He called the House into session immediately after the vote and said he would serve “until the election of the new Speaker.”
The time frame is not specified.
“In the Chairman’s view, before proceeding with the election of the Chairman, it would be prudent to first take a break so that the relevant caucus and its conferences can meet and discuss the way forward.
“Accordingly, the Speaker, in accordance with clause 12A of rule one, declares that the House is in recess, subject to the call of the Speaker.”
He then theatrically, with visible anger, slammed the gavel on the desk.
Patrick McHenry, the new interim speaker of the House of Representatives, took over on Tuesday after the ouster of Kevin McCarthy.
Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday became the first Speaker of the House of Representatives in history to be impeached by his own party
McCarthy’s removal came at the urging of Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican and die-hard MAGA loyalist, who felt McCarthy had conceded too much ground to Democrats in the budget debate.
The budget was agreed on Saturday evening, averting an eleventh-hour government shutdown.
Gaetz found support within his own deeply divided party.
The motion to abolish McCarthy, known as vacating the speaker’s chair, passed by a vote of 216 to 210, with eight Republicans joining Democrats.
McHenry currently leads the House Financial Services Committee.
He will be tasked with leading the fractious House in the coming days, but his role is one of the most powerful posts in Congress.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives is also second in the line of succession to the presidency, after the vice president.
McCarthy, whose January election was full of drama, could try to make a comeback.
But it is unclear whether he would receive support to do so.
McCarthy was seen shaking hands and hugging his supporters on the House floor after the stinging loss.
Nancy Mace of South Carolina stunned her Republican colleagues by voting to remove McCarthy from leadership.
The freewheeling congresswoman said her vote was about “trust.”
‘It’s not ideological. What matters is that we have a leader in our country who tells the truth, who you can trust,” she told DailyMail.com.
‘I’m looking for a speaker who tells the truth.’
But in January she tweeted that Gaetz is a “fraud” for his McCarthy opposition.
Kevin McCarthy has been sensationally ousted as Speaker of the House of Representatives after a historic vote sparked by a tumultuous civil war in the Republican Party.
Gaetz said on the House floor: “Chaos is Speaker McCarthy. Chaos is someone we cannot trust at his word.
“One thing that the White House, the Democrats in the House of Representatives and many of us on the conservative side of the Republican caucus would argue is that what we have in common – Kevin McCarthy at some point said something to all of us that he didn’t. ‘It’s not really mean and it was never intended to be complied with.
“I don’t think voting against Kevin McCarthy is chaos. I think $33 trillion in debt is chaos. I think facing a $2.2 trillion annual deficit is chaos.”
He added: “Let’s move on, let’s leave the chair, let’s find a better speaker.”
It came after an uprising led by his nemesis, Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz, and a small group of hardline Republicans who viewed McCarthy as a weak conservative.
Steve Scalise was among the Republicans who supported McCarthy
McCarthy’s supporters called him a ‘lucky warrior’ with ‘real American grit’
Gaetz and his allies criticized McCarthy for relying on Democratic votes to approve temporary funding that would have averted a partial government shutdown last week.
They also said he had not pushed hard enough for cuts and was too willing to send money to Ukraine.
The anti-McCarthy Republicans have not united around one alternative that they would like to present as a speaker.
Gaetz has noted that the speaker doesn’t even have to be a member of the House.
The Florida Republican said he “absolutely does not” want the top job – and mentioned a number of names – including members of McCarthy’s own leadership team such as Steve Scalise and Tom Emmer.
He even suggested he “might make a call” for New York’s Lee Zeldin.