By Camila Aponte 
Washington, DC – The House of Representatives presided over the floor on October 3rd to oust the Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) in a historic vote that ended with eight Republicans voting against the leader from their party. The 216-210 result provided the simple majority needed to oust McCarthy as Speaker of the House, effectively ending his nearly ten months in office, the shortest tenure of any Speaker of the House since 1876. This vote marks the first time in history that a motion to vacate speakership has succeeded.
Facing the House Freedom Caucus, the hard-line Republican flank in Congress, McCarthy’s speakership has faced challenges from his own party on multiple occasions since he ascended his role in January of this year. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) filed the motion to remove McCarthy as Speaker this Monday.
Reaching fifteen rounds of voting to elect a Speaker in January, Gaetz had originally refused to vote for McCarthy for the first fourteen rounds, which led McCarthy to attempt negotiations with Gaetz on the House floor. However, the adversities did not end after McCarthy took the gavel. McCarthy was faced with the debt-ceiling negotiations in May, where he successfully negotiated with President Biden to lift the debt ceiling until 2025, prompting uproar within the House Freedom Caucus, which voted with Democrats on a series of procedural votes in retaliation to the negotiations.
Just this Saturday, September 30, the U.S. government averted a shutdown with the passing of a forty-five-day extension of funding set forth under McCarthy’s leadership and signed off by President Joe Biden. The funding, which granted 16 billion dollars in disaster relief funding, met the demands of President Joe Biden but withheld aid to Ukraine, leaving space for additional funding negotiations in the coming weeks. In response to these negotiations between McCarthy and Biden, Gaetz asserted, “There shouldn’t be secret side deals made on a continuing resolution to lump Ukraine in with border security.”
Republicans, who severely opposed a temporary solution, had threatened to act out against McCarthy if he opted to pursue the stopgap funding bill. “If somebody wants to make a motion against me, bring it,” said McCarthy in a press conference following the successful passing of his bill just two days before Gaetz’s motion.
Prior to the vote, it was unclear if Democrats would vote to keep McCarthy or vote “present” to reduce the number of votes needed for McCarthy to remain as Speaker. However, every Democrat in the House voted against McCarthy, effectively paving the way for the House Freedom Caucus to tip the scales.
Before the vote commenced, Gaetz, who has been critical of McCarthy’s negotiations across the aisle throughout his tenure, stated in his closing remarks, “He [McCarthy] has failed to take a stand where it matters, so if he won’t, I will.”
Representative Patrick McHenry (R-NC) held a differing opinion of McCarthy and offered his support for the Speaker, stating in his pre-vote remarks, “With the narrowest Republican majority in a generation, what do we achieve? We brought the president to the table when he stubbornly said a hundred days, they would not negotiate on the debt ceiling.” With no certainty on who could coalesce enough members of the party to obtain the gavel, McHenry who is a close ally of McCarthy, will preside as Speaker pro tempore for the time being.