Kevin McCarthy ousted as House Speaker in Republican rebellion

Kevin McCarthy was voted out of his job after just nine months in the chair, the first House Speaker to be voted out in US history.

Speaker of the House Kevin McCarth, talks to reporters before the vote. Picture: AFP.

Republican speaker of the House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy has become the first speaker in US history to lose his position by a majority vote of members, throwing congress into turmoil weeks before it needs to fund the US government to avoid a shutdown.

By a 216 to 210 vote in the 435-member house (some members were absent) eight Republicans voted with all sitting Democrats on Tuesday (Wednesday AEST) to force Mr McCarthy, who won the speakership in January, to relinquish his post.

Congressman Matt Gaetz from Florida, who along with a slam group of Republicans had criticised Mr McCarthy’s leadership for months, moved Tuesday afternoon local time to force a vote on whether Mr McCarthy should ‘vacate’ the speakership, which culminated a few hours later in his political demise.

Mr Gaetz charged that Mr McCarthy had broken his word to conservatives on spending bills and how he would run the House, while Mr McCarthy and his allies said the effort was a personal vendetta by Mr Gaetz that could hurt the party, some calling on the Florida congreessman to be expelled from the GOP.

“I don’t regret standing up for choosing governance over grievance,” Mr McCarthy said at a news conference after the vote, declaring we would not run for his position again. “It is my responsibility. It is my job. I do not regret negotiating; our government is designed to find compromise.”

Throughout the historic proceedings, Mr McCarthy sat in a second row aisle seat, largely staring at the floor instead of approaching colleagues to try to ask for their support.

“Think long and hard before you plunge us into chaos,” Republican congressman Tom Cole, a supporter of Mr McCarthy, implored his detractors during the debate, “because that’s where we’re headed if we vacate the speakership”.

Just before the vote, Democrat leaders recommended that colleagues vote against saving Mr McCarthy, saying he had done nothing to try to win their support.

“We are ready, willing and able to work together with our Republican colleagues, but it is on them to join us to move the congress and the country forward,” said house minority leader Hakeem Jeffries.

Mr McCarthy’s ouster led congressman Patrick McHenry to become speaker pro tempor, who immediately gavelled the house into recess for a week.

Michael McCaul the chair of the house foreign affairs committee, later said Mr McCarthy’s removal from the speakership was “bad for Ukraine” and for America’s image abroad.

“Kevin supports Ukraine, I’m not sure where the next speaker will be,” he said.

In a major setback for pro-Ukraine politicians, congress didn’t include any aid for Kyiv in a short-term spending bill that passed late on Saturday, as the house and Senate raced to avert a partial government shutdown on October 1.

It wasn’t clear who would stand for speaker now that the job was vacant, amid Mr McCarthy’s deputy, Steve Scalise, and judiciary committee chairman Jim Jordan, were would put their names forward

Marjorie Taylor Greene, a former rabble rouser turned ally of Mr McCarthy, said there was no clear plan. “No one has come forward and no one has shown any interest in running for speaker. No one has support in the conference like Kevin McCarthy does. So that’s been my question the entire time is what’s the plan, and there’s not a plan, and I think that’s the most concerning part about it,” she said.

Kevin McCarthy walks to the House Chamber ahead of the vote. Picture: Getty Images via AFP.

Mr McCarthy won the speaker’s gavel in January but only after the 15th ballot. His decision last weekend to propose a bill to extend government funding into November, which garnered Democratic support, was the prompt for Mr Gaetz to move against him.

Given the chamber’s finely balanced numbers the outcome on the floor wasn’t clear until Nancy Mace of South Carolina, a moderate who has worked well with M McCarthy in the past, surprisingly voted against him.

Mr McCarthy tried to project confidence ahead of the vote, while also saying he was standing on principle, after turning his back on conservative holdouts to pass a short-term spending bill last weekend.