Matt Gaetz says he plans to force a vote on whether to oust Speaker Kevin McCarthy, and a motion to vacate could come as soon as Monday
In an appearance on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday, Gaetz criticized McCarthy's handling of spending and budget fights since the GOP retook the House in January and claimed that McCarthy had violated promises he made in order to be chosen as speaker.
Monday is a fly-in day for members with the House floor opening at noon and the first votes set for 6:30 p.m.The motion is a special procedural move that allows any House member to trigger a vote to remove the speaker with a simple majority vote. Since the threshold was lowered this year, the possibility of a motion to vacate has been raised at various points as McCarthy worked to wrangle parts of his conference -- or drew their ire, including over the debt ceiling deal with the White House.
The House could also take a procedural vote instead, such as voting to table Gaetz's motion or refer it to a committee. Others in the hard-right House Freedom Caucus who have criticized GOP leadership but have supported McCarthy at times have been more evasive on questions about him. Some Democrats have said they are weighing whether to vote "present," which would help McCarthy just as it did when he first won the speaker's gavel by lowering the total number of votes he needs to keep his job.
"I believe it's up to the Republican conference to determine their own leadership and deal with their own problems. But it's not up to Democrats to save Republicans -- from themselves especially," she said. Asked Sunday on "This Week" whom he would support as McCarthy's successor, Gaetz suggested he hadn't decided on someone. A similar dynamic played out during the speakership contest in January, when McCarthy's Republican critics -- a minority of the conference -- could not settle on an alternative who could unite the party.
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