A serious problem for Republicans

With the Republicans holding a tenuous five vote majority in the House of Representatives and with another threat of a government shutdown due to a lack of congressional action just 44 days away, the House voted 216 to 210 to remove Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House. All 208 House Democrats were joined by eight House Republicans in voting for McCarthy's ouster.

It marks the first time that a Motion to Vacate the Chair has ever passed in the House of Representatives in that body's 234-year history, and only the second time that such a motion has made it to a vote on the House floor. In 1910, Joseph Cannon, a Republican from Illinois, survived a motion to vacate by a comfortable 37 votes.

The motion comes on the heels of the chaotic way in which McCarthy won the Speakership in January of this year. It took 15 ballots over the course of five days for McCarthy to win the seat. His opposition came from members of the Republican caucus who did not believe that McCarthy was sufficiently conservative on key Republican issues.

It was Florida congressman Matt Gaetz who brought the motion to vacate. Gaetz objected to concessions made by McCarthy to House Democrats in order to pass a continuing resolution last week, and thereby avoid a government shutdown.

There is personal animosity between Gaetz and McCarthy. Though the Department of Justice declined to prosecute him, Gaetz remains under a House Ethics Committee inquiry into allegations of sexual misconduct, drug use and misuse of funds. Gaetz denies bringing the motion to vacate against McCarthy out of revenge against McCarthy for refusing to block the ethics investigation.

McCarthy spoke to reporters following the vote to remove him from the Speakership and said this about Matt Gaetz:

You know it was personal. It had nothing to do about spending. It had nothing to do about…everything he accused somebody of he was doing. It all was about getting attention from you. I mean, we're getting email fundraisers from him as he's doing it.”

Gaetz pushed back against McCarthy, saying this to reporters.

Speaker McCarthy's time is over. I wish him well. I have no personal animus to him. I hope he finds fruitful pastures and I'm certain he will. But we've got a job to do here…”

The drama in the House comes at a time when Republicans are divided as to the direction of the party and divided as to who should be the nominee for president in 2024. Donald Trump – whom Matt Gaetz claims as an ally – has a commanding lead according to all the major polls. But a sizable number of Republicans fear that Trump will be a hard sell to moderate and independent voters in key swing states in the general election in November 2024.

Against that backdrop, and with Republicans having only very tenuous control over one half of one third of the federal government, the party can ill afford a chaotic and protracted fight to elect a new Speaker.