Jessica Vieira | Editor-In-Chief
McCarthy speaking to reporters after being removed from his position. / J. Scott Applewhite / AP
On Tuesday, October third, Kevin McCarthy, the fifty-fifth Speaker of the House was fired from his position in a historic 216 to 210 vote.
The House Speaker traditionally is a member of the majority party, which in this case is Republican. The speaker of the House runs official business in the House of Representatives, where laws are made in the United States. The Speaker hosts votes and speaks for their party’s agenda, along with running the daily tasks of the House of Representatives.
McCarthy served from January to October of 2023. He was voted in with 216 votes, and because the party split is so close in the House of Representatives, to get McCarthy into the speaker position initially, there were fifteen voting rounds that took place before a majority consensus was made. There was also a list of terms created by Republicans that McCarthy agreed to in order to gain their support. When McCarthy was elected, one term that he agreed to entailed that one Representative could motion to have him removed. This is not a typical condition for the House Speaker.
Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz was the representative that motion to remove McCarthy because of this collaboration with Democrats. Eight Republicans agreed, and voted against McCarthy. The uproar was caused when McCarthy began working with Democrats to create a bill concerning the prevention of a government shutdown. This included budgeting government money that was not agreed to by this group of eight Republicans. Every Republican that voted to fire Kevin McCarthy had a different reason for doing so, but he general consensus is that the representatives feel as though McCarthy lied about how he was going to spend government money when he was elected.
North Carolina Representative Patrick McHenry is serving as the interim speaker until a vote can take place. Republicans voted to nominate Steve Scalise as the next House Speaker, but the party has postponed scheduled voting until further notice