Republican rebels roll Speaker Kevin McCarthy in historic coup

Republican rebels have brought down the US House Speaker – who is second in line to the presidency – in a stunning coup that leaves the Congress in crisis.

The US Congress will be paralysed for at least a week after a small band of Republican rebels launched an extraordinary coup to oust the House Speaker for the first time in history.

Republican leader Kevin McCarthy was dumped from the top job – which is second in line to the presidency – after eight of his party members teamed up with the Democrats and voted to remove him.

The stunning revolt left the House of Representatives without a leader, with its work to be suspended until the Republicans can reach a peace deal to end their intraparty civil war and choose a successor to Mr McCarthy.

Prior to the vote, which was the first challenge to a Speaker since 1910, Mr McCarthy had vowed to fight on even if he lost. But after going down in history as the first Speaker to be deposed, he decided to walk away from the job he had only held since January.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy prior to the vote. Picture: Chip Somodevilla (AFP)

Florida Republican Matt Gaetz spearheaded the plot against him after Mr McCarthy teamed up with the Democrats over the weekend to temporarily fund the US government, averting a shutdown that would have left public servants unpaid and sparked nationwide chaos.

The Speaker’s removal now leaves Congress with even less time to pass a full-year budget before the stopgap measure runs out in the middle of November.

Mr Gaetz was able to move against the Speaker after Mr McCarthy made a concession in January – when the rebels blocked his bid for the job for five days – that any member of the House could spark a floor fight to challenge his position.

Republican agitator Matt Gaetz. Picture: AFP

The Florida congressman attacked Mr McCarthy as “a feature of the swamp” in Washington DC, adding: “We are breaking the fever now and we should elect a Speaker who’s better.”

But Mr McCarthy argued the strike against him was motivated by personal grievances, including a House Ethics Committee probe of allegations of sexual misconduct and misuse of funds by Mr Gaetz.

“I don’t regret standing up for choosing governance over grievance,” Mr McCarthy said.

“Unfortunately, four per cent of our conference can join all the Democrats and dictate who can be the Republican Speaker in this House.”

Matt Gaetz and Kevin McCarthy clash in the House of Representatives earlier this year. Picture: Chip Somodevilla/AFP

Furious Republicans savaged Mr Gaetz and his fellow rebels, with Arkansas’s Steve Womack saying the chaos showed his party “could not govern itself” and New York’s Marc Molinaro adding: “I don’t have tolerance for some pseudo psycho political fetish.”

Mr McCarthy had retained the support of the overwhelming majority of his colleagues, but the party’s razor-thin majority – with 221 members in the 435-seat House – meant he was always vulnerable to a challenge.

“Americans are seeing that we need a marriage counsellor,” Texas congressman Mark Alford said.

“Until we get this family settled and we get communication and trust back in the relationships, I’m afraid we might lose our majority.”

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Picture: AFP

Even former president Donald Trump questioned why his party was “always fighting among themselves” instead of “fighting the Radical Left Democrats”.

Some Republicans are now considering expelling Mr Gaetz from their party, prompting him to declare: “If they want to expel me, let me know when they have the votes.”

Top Democrat Hakeem Jeffries, the House Minority leader, earlier decided not to save the Speaker after bailing him out to land the last-ditch government funding deal.

“It is now the responsibility of the GOP members to end the House Republican civil war,” he said.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said President Joe Biden hoped the Republicans moved quickly to elect a new Speaker so the Congress could deal with “the urgent challenges facing our nation”.

Originally published as Republican rebels roll Speaker Kevin McCarthy in historic coup