Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy is bringing the grit many on the right think he should have brought to the budget negotiations into his battle with Rep. Matt Gaetz, the leader of the GOP Congressional faction opposing McCarthy from the right.
Rep. Gaetz, as background, just launched his attack on Speaker of the House McCarthy, bringing a motion to remove McCarthy by vacating the Speaker’s chair. Making that move on the House floor, he said, “Mr. Speaker, pursuant to clause two A1 of Rule nine, I rise to give notice of my intent to raise a question of the privileges of House. Declaring the office Speaker of the House of Representatives to be vacant. Resolved that the office of Speaker of the House Representatives is hereby declared to be vacant.”
Before Rep. Gaetz brought the motion but after he had made it clear that he would do so, Speaker McCarthy vowed resistance to Rep. Gaetz’s rebellion, making as much quite clear during an interview on Face the Nation on Sunday. Speaking with Margaret Brennan. Speaker McCarthy affected a mostly blasé attitude toward the situation, telling Brennan that Rep. Gaetz’s antics are nothing new.
Brennan introduced the topic, asking, “He’s going to try to oust you as speaker of the House.” Speaker McCarthy brushed off the question and situation, telling her, “That’s nothing new. He’s tried to do that from the moment I ran for office.”
Brennan pressed a bit, asking Speaker McCarthy if he will be able to “survive” in his role as Speaker of the House if Rep. Gaetz and his allies don’t back down like in January, content with unfulfilled promises, and instead press their position. She asked, “This time he says he’s going to keep going. Can you survive?”
Speaker McCarthy insisted that he would be able to fend off Rep. Gaetz’s challenge and vowed to both resist it and “start governing,” by which he presumably meant cutting more deals with the Democrats that his donors want and MAGA voters decidedly do not. “I’ll survive. You know, this is personal with Matt,” Speaker McCarthy said.
“Matt voted against the most conservative ability to protect our border, secure our border. He’s more interested in securing TV interviews than doing something. He wanted to push us into a shutdown, even threatening his own district with all the military people there who would not be paid,” he continued.
“Only because he wants to take this motion, so be it. Bring it on! Let’s get over with it and let’s start governing. If he’s upset because he tried to push us in a shutdown and I made sure government didn’t shut down, then let’s have that fight,” he said.
Watch him here:
"I'll survive," House @SpeakerMcCarthy says after Rep. Matt Gaetz said Sunday that he will introduce a motion to vacate McCarthy from his seat this week.
"Bring it on. Let's get over with it." pic.twitter.com/SnCVIHTN4f
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) October 1, 2023
McCarthy reiterated that “bring it on” attitude on X:
Just did. https://t.co/zdQk3GblbV
— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) October 2, 2023
Rep. Gaetz, for his part, insists that America needs a new Speaker of the House because Speaker McCarthy broke the promises to the holdouts he made in January. He said, “I think we need to rip off the Band-Aid. I think we need to move on with new leadership that can be trustworthy.”
Rep. Gaetz added that Speaker McCarthy will only be able to hold onto his position in House leadership if the Democrats help him this week, which would presumably mean Congress lurching to the left, saying, “The only way Kevin McCarthy is speaker of the House at the end of this coming week is if Democrats bail him out.”
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