© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) listens to a question as he talks to reporters in the U.S. Capitol after the House of Representatives passed a stopgap government funding bill to avert an immediate government shutdown, on Capitol Hill
By Richard Cowan and Moira Warburton
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy faced a direct threat to his leadership when hardline fellow Republican Representative Matt Gaetz called on Monday for a vote to oust him, injecting an additional element of chaos into Congress.
Gaetz, who has clashed with McCarthy for months, said he introduced a “motion to vacate” that would force a vote to remove McCarthy as speaker, though he has not floated an alternative leader for the chamber.
It is not clear whether he will succeed. Republicans control the chamber by a narrow 221-212 majority, and it would take as few as five defections to threaten McCarthy’s hold on power, if all Democrats vote against him.
Gaetz and other far-right Republicans are angered that McCarthy relied on Democratic votes to pass a temporary funding extension on Saturday that headed off a partial government shutdown. A faction of about 20 Republicans, Gaetz included, had forced McCarthy’s hand by repeatedly blocking other legislation.
McCarthy has called Gaetz’s leadership challenge disruptive and has said he expects he will survive. “Bring it on,” he wrote on the X platform, formerly Twitter.
Gaetz was one of more than a dozen far-right Republicans who repeatedly voted against McCarthy’s bid for speaker in January. McCarthy ultimately secured the gavel after 15 rounds of voting.
As a condition of winning that January vote, McCarthy agreed to a rules change that allowed any one member to call for a vote to oust the speaker, setting the stage for Gaetz’s move.
No U.S. House speaker has ever been removed from the position that puts the holder second in line in succession for the presidency after the vice president.
DEMOCRATS DEBATE NEXT MOVE
It is not clear whether Democrats will vote against McCarthy, as they did in January, or extract concessions to keep him in power.
They are angered that he abandoned a May spending agreement with Democratic President Joe Biden, as well as his approval of an impeachment inquiry into Biden. They are also upset that he gave them little time to read the stopgap spending bill before Saturday’s vote, even though he needed their support.
They could demand that McCarthy honor his spending deal with Biden, drop the impeachment inquiry or hold votes on gun and immigration legislation.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries has not said so far if his caucus would join right-wing Republicans to help topple McCarthy or if Democrats might support him in exchange for political or legislative favors.
The White House has characterized Republicans as unreliable and extreme during the spending fight.
“What we’re seeing with House Republicans is pure chaos,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.
The stopgap bill passed on Saturday did not include $6 billion in aid to Ukraine, which is backed by Democrats and many Senate Republicans but opposed by right-wing House Republicans like Gaetz.
It is unclear whether Congress will approve that money.
On the House floor, Gaetz earlier accused McCarthy of having a “secret side deal” with Democrats to approve Ukraine aid.
McCarthy said there was no secret plan and said the Biden administration needs to provide more detail on how that money would be spent.
“Our members have a lot of questions, especially on the accountability provisions of what we want to see with the money that gets sent,” he said.
The House and Senate have until Nov. 17 to either pass spending legislation for the current fiscal year or pass another stopgap measure to avoid a shutdown.
This story originally appeared on Investing
