House votes to oust McCarthy, who will not try to regain speaker’s post

WASHINGTON — In a historic move, the House of Representatives on Tuesday voted to remove Speaker Kevin McCarthy from his post, the first time in the history of the legislative body.

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McCarthy told reporters that he planned to call a vote Tuesday, one day after Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., filed a “motion to vacate.” The motion marked the first time a formal resolution has been filed to remove a speaker since 1910, according to The Washington Post.

Vote for new speaker will be held next week

Update 7:54 p.m. EDT Oct. 3: The House of Representatives will be in recess until next week, CNN reported. Lawmakers will return Tuesday night for a conference meeting before a potential vote later that week on electing a new speaker, Reps. Matt Gaetz and Bob Good told the cable news outlet.

“Hopefully vote on a speaker on Wednesday,” Good told CNN. “And I don’t know if that would mean within conference Wednesday or within conference Tuesday night or on the floor.”

McCarthy will not seek speakership again

Update 7:05 p.m. EDT Oct. 3: Kevin McCarthy told Republicans he will not be running for speaker again, The New York Times reported. McCarthy revealed his decision during a brief closed-door meeting at the Capitol.

The brief meeting ended “abruptly,” Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., told CNN.

“He’s not running,” Norman told the cable news outlet. “He just said he’s not running.”

— Bob D’Angelo, Cox Media Group National Content Desk

McCarthy’s tenure second shortest in House history

Update 5:53 p.m. EDT Oct. 3: Kevin McCarthy served as House speaker for 269 days before being removed on Tuesday. That is the second-shortest in the history of the legislative body, according to CNN.

The record is 247 days, held by Rep Michael C. Kerr D-Ind. He died in office of consumption on Aug. 19, 1876, according to the cable news outlet.

He was the first Democratic Speaker of the House after the Civil War,

— Bob D’Angelo, Cox Media Group National Content Desk

Who will be next speaker?

Update 5:47 p.m. EDT Oct. 3: Now that Kevin McCarthy has had the speaker’s gavel taken from him, the question now is who might replace him.

Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., told reporters that he was keeping his conversations with potential successors quiet, The New York Times reported.

Gaetz, however, did mention representatives Tom Emmer and Steve Scalise. Other names Gaetz mentioned included Mike Johnson, Kevin Hearn and Jody Arrington, according to the newspaper.

One name that Gaetz did not mention, but a representative who might seek the gavel, is the former speaker. McCarthy.

— Bob D’Angelo, Cox Media Group National Content Desk

Gaetz: McCarthy ‘a creature of the swamp’

Update 5:10 p.m. EDT Oct. 3: Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., who led the motion that ultimately ousted Kevin McCarthy as speaker, called him “a creature of the swamp” while speaking with reporters after the vote, CNN reported.

“He has risen to power by collecting special interest money and redistributing that money in exchange for favors,” Gaetz told reporters. “We are breaking the fever and we should elect a speaker who is better.”

— Bob D’Angelo, Cox Media Group National Content Desk

What’s next?

Update 5:05 p.m. EDT Oct. 3: The two parties will now hold meetings to choose speaker nominees, according to The New York Times. It takes a simple majority in the Republican conference to put forward a nominee for speaker. That means Kevin McCarthy, ousted in a motion to vacate, could try to win back his position.

— Bob D’Angelo, Cox Media Group National Content Desk

McHenry named interim speaker

Update 4:53 p.m. EDT Oct. 3: Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., was named speaker pro tempore of the House under a law passed after the Sept. 11 attacks in the event of a vacancy in the office, according to The New York Times.

“The office of the Speaker of the House of the U.S. House of Representatives is hereby declared vacant,” Rep. Steve Womack announced after the votes were tallied.

— Bob D’Angelo, Cox Media Group National Content Desk

McCarthy ousted as House speaker

Update 4:45 p.m. EDT Oct. 3: For the first time in U.S. history, the speaker of the House of Representatives has been removed from his position.

By a 216-210 vote, the House voted to remove Kevin McCarthy as speaker. Eight Republicans joined all of the Democrats in the vote.

McCarthy lasted 269 days as speaker, according to The New York Times.

It marks only the second time that such a vote has officially come to the House floor. The first came in 1910 and involved Speaker Joe Cannon. The man known as “Uncle Joe” held on to his gavel but his power was diminished.

Republicans voting to remove McCarthy, R-Calif., included Matt Gaetz of Florida, Eli Crane of Arizona, Ken Buck of Colorado, Tim Burchett of Tennessee, Nancy Mace of South Carolina, Bob Good of Virginia, Andy Biggs of Arizona and Matt Rosendale of Montana.

The vote followed debate by members of both parties and followed a failed attempt by McCarthy’s allies to table the vote, The Washington Post reported.

The previous House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., was not present for the vote, as she was traveling to California to attend the funeral of Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

In a 218-208 vote, the motion to table failed, with 11 Republicans joining all Democrats present in defeating the resolution.

— Bob D’Angelo, Cox Media Group National Content Desk

How historic is Tuesday’s vote?

Update 3:15 p.m. EDT Oct. 3: When the House votes Tuesday on whether to oust McCarthy from his role as House speaker, it will mark only the second time that such a vote has officially come to the House floor.

It has been more than 100 years since the House last considered a motion to vacate.

Motion to kill Gaetz’s measure fails

Update 2:50 p.m. EDT Oct. 3: An effort to block the motion to vacate threatening McCarthy’s role as speaker failed in a 218-208 vote on Tuesday.

The vote kicked off an hour of debate over the motion.

Which Republicans have said they will vote to oust McCarthy?

Update 2:40 p.m. EDT Oct. 3: Six Republicans in the House have indicated that they will vote in favor of removing McCarthy from the speakership, CNN reported.

The news network identified the lawmakers as:

• Matt Gaetz of Florida
• Victoria Spartz of Indiana
• Eli Crane of Arizona
• Nancy Mace of South Carolina
• Bob Good of Virginia
• Matt Rosendale of Montana

House voting on measure to table Gaetz’s motion

Update 2:35 p.m. EDT Oct. 3: The House has begun to vote on an attempt to stop the motion to remove McCarthy as House speaker, The Guardian reported.

If the motion passes, the California Republican will remain in the speaker’s chair.

How does a motion to vacate work?

Update 2:25 p.m. EDT Oct. 3: The House is expected to vote Tuesday on a motion to vacate that could remove McCarthy from the speakership role that he won 10 months ago.

The process began Monday when Gaetz filed the motion.

Original report: On Tuesday, McCarthy said he did not plan to ask for Democrats to support keeping him as House speaker. Five Republicans and all Democrats in the House would have to vote to oust him for him to lose his position.

“If I counted how many times somebody wanted to knock me out, I would have been gone a long time ago,” the House speaker told reporters. Later, he added, “At the end of the day, if you throw a speaker out that has 99% of their conference, that kept government open and paid the troops, I think we’re in a really bad place for how we’re going to run Congress.”

The attempt to remove McCarthy comes after the House passed a bill to fund the government through Nov. 17 with support from Democrats.

In a letter shared Tuesday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries urged Democrats to allow the GOP “to end the House Republican Civil War.”

“Given their unwillingness to break from MAGA extremism in an authentic and comprehensive manner, House Democratic leadership will vote yes on the pending Republican motion to Vacate the Chair,” he wrote.

Representatives from Northeast Florida all voted against removing McCarthy -- Aaron Bean, who represents Florida's Fourth District; Kat Cammack, who represents Florida's Third District; John Rutherford, who represents Florida's Fifth District; and Michael Waltz, who represents Florida's Sixth District.

Rep. Buddy Carter, who represents Georgia's First District in Southeast Georgia, also voted against McCarthy's removal.

All of these local representatives are Republicans.

Bean released the following statement:

“For the past ten months, I have been proud to stand with Speaker Kevin McCarthy. He is a principled leader, who puts our great nation and the American people first.

"Under the leadership of Speaker McCarthy, we’ve reopened the People’s House, eliminated proxy voting, and championed bills that cut reckless spending from our oversized government.

"The motion to vacate is a total distraction from the serious work Congress is considering. Instead of political games, we must focus on securing our open border and reducing the size of our government. Kevin McCarthy is the right Speaker for this moment in our nation’s history.”

Rutherford released the following statement:

“Today Representative Matt Gaetz (FL-01) led House Democrats and a handful of dissenters in handing the House back to the Far Left. It is a lie to characterize this as anything but a personal vendetta.

"Rep. Gaetz’s ‘concern’ for the American people is hollow. He claims to support cutting spending and securing our southern border, yet last week voted down a bill to cut nondefense discretionary spending by 30 percent and secure our border. He claims to support the military, yet voted against paying our troops – twice last week. He claims to support passage of single-subject funding bills, yet here we are today living out his personal vendetta against Speaker McCarthy instead of considering two single-subject appropriations bills scheduled to be on the floor.

"Rep. Gaetz is driving our nation toward the brink of another government shutdown, all for clicks and cash and a boost in his national profile. His disrespect for his colleagues, this institution, and the people we serve is a clear reflection of his lacking fitness to serve in Congress and has made him President Biden’s greatest ally.

"Over the past nine months, Speaker Kevin McCarthy has kept his Commitment to America, despite distractions by a small vocal minority. Speaker McCarthy led the Republican Conference in cutting $2 trillion in spending, streamlining energy permitting, passing historic border legislation, holding the Biden Administration accountable, reforming welfare programs, and rolling back soft-on-crime laws. I stand by this record, and hope we can put aside the childish gamesmanship playing out today and get back to doing the job of governing that we were elected to do.”

Check back for updates to this developing story.