Rep. Matt Gaetz says he will move to oust Kevin McCarthy as speaker this week

NBC News ^ | 10/1/2023 | Summer Concepcion

[aperez77]

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., said Sunday that he intends to file a motion to oust House Speaker Kevin McCarthy this week after Congress voted to avert a shutdown hours before the deadline.

"I do intend to file a motion to vacate against Speaker McCarthy this week," Gaetz said in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “I think we need to rip off the band aid. I think we need to move on with new leadership that can be trustworthy."

Gaetz also confirmed that he'll soon file a motion to vacate the speakership in an appearance on ABC News' "This Week," after the Senate and House on Saturday night voted to pass a short-term bill to keep the government funded through Nov. 17.

In response to Gaetz' announcement, McCarthy said, “That’s nothing new ... He’s tried to do that from the moment I ran for office ... Yes, I’ll survive. You know, this is personal with Matt.”

[hcmama]

"Matt Gaetz has an ongoing love affair with the microphone, and an uncanny habit of tossing fellow GOP members under the bus. The microphone is Gaetz’ tool to publicly criticize and threaten McCarthy, Donalds, J. Jordan, et al, rather than collaborate with them to build consensus."

I think he has alienated just about everyone in his caucus with this behavior. There seems to be a lot more daylight between Gaetz and other Freedom Caucus members these days.

Jacqui Heinrich is also reporting this morning that she is hearing from members of the House GOP there will be a move to expel him if the Ethics Committtee investigation comes back with a negative finding. At the very least, they will use it to clip his wings.

[napscoordinator]

We had 10 republicans put up as speaker. Most didn’t want the job. The others got very few votes.

[joshua c]

Republicans fighting Republicans

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Freedom caucus v Deep State

a fight worth fighting

unless you want more of the same

[who knows what evil?]

Oh, look...it’s the ‘flaccid RINO guns’...

[aperez77]

Extremism did not help us in the 2022 midterms and in the 2020 presidential election. We must be more more moderate conservatives.

[joshua c]

the number of comments in favor of the status quo is surprising

[CarolinaReaganFan]

McCarthy and his fellow democrats are disgusting... The only way Gaetz should hold off fron vacating the chair is if MCCarthy uses prosedural tactics to prevent Ukraine funding from ever coming to a vote.. stop the war now... fire this McC traitor later

[joshua c]

kinder gentler conservatives?

ghwb is back from the dead

[Mr. N. Wolfe]

“Exhibit A in why America is collapsing, with an enormous assist from Republicans.”

I agree.

The term “The Stupid Party” doesn’t just pertain to politicians.

[Jim Noble]

The only possible alternative to McCarthy is Hakeem Jeffries, the idea that a Speaker acceptable to the tiny conservative minority is ridiculous.

You have to elect 218 conservatives to get a conservative speaker. You don’t have 20.

[Dr. Franklin]

McCarthy is doing the best he can with one of the slimmest Republican majorities in history thanks in large part to the collective mess Ronna, Trump,and good ole Mitch made of the mid-terms,

McCarthy is doing the bidding of the Uniparty. He has not even attempted to use the constitutional powers of the U.S. House of Representatives to check the Bidet Regime. The House has the power of the purse for a reason, and that power isn't being used to close the border, or put an end to the U.S. Postal Service facilitating stolen elections through mass mail in ballot fraud. The House also has the power to subpoena materials about voting fraud in the "swing" states that were stolen from Trump in 2020, or other seats stolen from MAGA candidates like Kari Lake, hold hearings, etc. The obvious conclusion is that McCarthy likes to lose to cheating. He also has been reluctant to bring a vote in the entire House on any impeachment inquiries. There is no reason to retain him as Speaker, since he is just a "squeaker". Let Gaetz now bring his motion to vacate so we can see who the other losers are in the GOP caucus, and how many Dems will help McCarthy try to retain the chair.

[GAgal]

Dem Speaker-in-Waiting: https://jeffries.house.gov/about/
Don’t want McCarthy? Get ready for Hakeem.

[Irish Eyes]

You mean a Conservative Nancy Pelosi.

[joma89]

..and then, magically, the democrats do something where gaetz says he just can’t do it and mccarthy stays.

We have heard this one before.

[cableguymn]

Conservative republican fighting a Rino democrat you mean.

Democrats purged the Dinos years ago. Republicans are just getting started..

[cableguymn]

the only way mcarthy stays is with democratic votes.

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he might get them too

[Old Retired Army Guy]

Gaetz is only concerned about Gaetz. I hope someone challenges him in his Primary next year and the republicans get rid of him.

[Golden Eagle]

Gaerz has long been one of my favorites.

However, in this case, he seems to have cut off his nose to spite his face.

Two reasons. Frist, the spending bill he blocked did cut spending significantly, up to 8% domestically I’ve read. That’s clearly not enough, long term, but it’s better than what we ended up with now with the CR, which is no cuts.

Second, they have as promised broken up the Omnibus bill into the different appropriations bills for each department, which is a huge win. But rather than be happy with that achievement as well, we get stuck with the CR which
Is in effect a short term Omnibus again, with no cuts.

A CR of some sort was probably a requirement, due to delays in creating those individual appropriations, but the one we had lined up had budget cuts in it, that Gaetz blocked.

[Jim Noble]

McCarthy starts with 212 Democrat votes. He needs six Republicans to stay.

[Colo9250]

Amazing how easy the moderates on this site reveal themselves, isn’t it?