WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz filed a resolution late Monday to oust Kevin McCarthy as speaker, setting up a likely showdown vote in the House in the days ahead.
The far-right Republican from Florida has for months threatened to use the procedural tool — called a motion to vacate — to try to strip McCarthy of his office. Those threats escalated over the weekend after McCarthy relied on Democrats to provide the necessary votes to fund the government.
In an earlier speech on the House floor, Gaetz demanded McCarthy disclose the details of a supposed deal the speaker made with the White House to bring forward legislation to help fund the war in Ukraine during funding negotiations.
“It is becoming increasingly clear who the speaker of the House already works for and it’s not the Republican Conference,” Gaetz said in his speech, hours before he filed the resolution.
Once can serve either the Republican party or the citizens of the United States, but not both.
It’s hardly worthy of praise to perform the bare minimum of office in avoiding a government shutdown, but Speaker McCarthy met that low bar while Representative Gaetz failed to.