Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), after being removed as House speaker Tuesday, said that he won’t seek the position again. The vote to remove him was the first such action in congressional history. McCarthy’s ouster was sought by hard-right members of his own party. McCarthy was removed by a 216-210 vote, with eight Republicans joining all Democrats in favor of the removal. The move puts the House in uncharted territory as it searches for a leader.
Key updates
- Pelosi says acting speaker ordered her to vacate office in Capitol she held as former speaker
- It “was personal,” Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said of Rep. Matt Gaetz’s (R-Fla.) move to remove…
- When Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) announced he would not seek the speakership, Republican members attending the conference…
Here’s what to know
The House will take no further votes this week. Republicans are expected to hold a speaker candidate forum Tuesday, according to sources familiar with the plans who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations.
Following McCarthy’s ouster, Rep. Patrick T. McHenry (R-N.C.) was designated as speaker pro tempore. He presided over the chamber briefly before calling a recess to allow Republicans and Democrats to meet privately.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) introduced the resolution to remove McCarthy from his leadership position after weeks of threatening to do so because McCarthy passed a stopgap measure to fund the government with Democratic support.
See which House members earlier rejected an effort to spare McCarthy a vote on removal.
Pelosi says acting speaker ordered her to vacate office in Capitol she held as former speaker
In one of his first moves as speaker pro tempore, Rep. Patrick T. McHenry (R-N.C.) ordered former House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to “immediately” vacate her hideaway office in the Capitol by Wednesday.
While lawmakers who are not in leadership don’t usually have offices in the Capitol, Pelosi was allowed to keep one as former speaker.
In a statement, Pelosi said “this eviction is a sharp departure from tradition” and noted that, when she was speaker, she gave former speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) “a significantly larger suite of offices for as long as he wished.”
Pelosi said office space “doesn’t matter” to her, “but it seems to be important to them.”
“Sadly, because I am in California to mourn the loss of and pay tribute to my dear friend Dianne Feinstein, I am unable to retrieve my belongings at this time,” Pelosi said. “Now that the new Republican Leadership has settled this important matter, let’s hope they get to work on what’s truly important for the American people.”
8:35 p.m. EDT
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By Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff
Reporter covering national breaking news
With no official candidates yet announced for speaker, some House members have begun to float their ideas.
That includes Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who wrote on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, that he wanted Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) for speaker.
8:34 p.m. EDT
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By Mariana Alfaro
Reporter on the breaking political news team
In his remarks, McCarthy defended the House’s impeachment inquiry into President Biden, repeating many of the same allegations he and other Republicans have made before against the president.
“If you knew all of that, would you say, ‘Oh, I don’t have any more questions?’ Or would you at least, as a lawmaker. … Wouldn’t you at least say: ‘Okay, well, we’re going to have to go get some more documents?’” he told reporters.
The probe has so far shown no evidence of wrongdoing by the president.
8:22 p.m. EDT
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By Colby Itkowitz
Congress, campaigns, health policy, Pennsylvania politics
Rep. Kevin McCarthy compared Russian President Vladimir Putin to Adolf Hitler, saying that what is happening “looks a lot like the 1930s.” The ousted speaker, who agreed to a spending bill that did not include funding for Ukraine, warned that Hitler resented Germany’s defeat in World War I much like Putin resented that Russia “collapsed to the West” following the downfall of the Soviet Union.
8:15 p.m. EDT
Constitutional expert: Acting speaker is not in presidential line of succession
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By Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff
Rep. Patrick T. McHenry (R-N.C.) was appointed speaker pro tempore Tuesday. (Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)
A constitutional expert said it is likely that Rep. Patrick T. McHenry (R-N.C.), now the speaker pro tempore, does not hold the title of speaker and, as a result, would likely not be in the presidential line of succession. It would instead probably go directly to Senate pro tempore, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.).
“The House is on untested ground,” said Sarah Binder, who studies congressional and legislative politics at the Brookings Institution.
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KEY UPDATE
7:56 p.m. EDT
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By Mariana Alfaro
Reporter on the breaking political news team
It “was personal,” Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said of Rep. Matt Gaetz’s (R-Fla.) move to remove him from the speakership.
“It had nothing to do about spending,” he said. “It all was about getting attention from [the media]. I mean, we’re getting email fundraisers from him.”
That, he said, “is not governing. That’s not becoming of a member of Congress.”
“And regardless of what you think, I’ve seen the texts,” McCarthy said. “It was all about his ethics.”
He appeared to be referring to the ethics investigation that Gaetz is under.
7:53 p.m. EDT
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By Marianna Sotomayor and Kyle Melnick
Republicans said privately before the motion-to-vacate vote that if Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) sought the speakership again, he would not get the necessary majority support to win unless he reached out to Democrats. That is no longer in question, as it’s expected whoever throws their hat in the ring will work to earn just GOP votes.
“If there’s a coalition government, I can assure you there’s enough of us that will slow down, logjam the House floor,” Rep. Andrew Ogles (R-Tenn.) said. “This will only be a Republican vote. End of story.”
7:52 p.m. EDT
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By Jacob Bogage
Business reporter
Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), asked whether he’ll stay in Congress, responded, “I’ll look at it.” The recently ousted speaker spoke to reporters after addressing his conference.
He later clarified his remarks to say he hasn’t thought about resigning from Congress.
7:51 p.m. EDT
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By Marianna Sotomayor
Congressional reporter covering the House of Representatives
Former speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is bemoaning how the House as an institution is broken, remarks he has never made before but is making now that he’s out of his leadership role.
He just told a story that has never been relayed publicly of when he asked former speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for help on how to tweak the motion-to-vacate rule in January that led to his ousting. After years of hammering Pelosi and criticizing that she never treated him fairly as minority leader, it’s the first time he has ever truly discussed seeking her guidance.
KEY UPDATE
7:39 p.m. EDTReturn to menu
By Marianna SotomayorCongressional reporter covering the House of Representatives
When Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) announced he would not seek the speakership, Republican members attending the conference meeting gasped. Several Republicans, including some who privately admitted they never really got along with McCarthy, said they greatly respected how McCarthy addressed the conference with a smile throughout his remarks.
Members in the room said many colleagues were crying as he spoke, men and women alike.
Scottie's Playtime 
“Dysfunctional petty out of control republicans”.
Being a writer of fiction and thus a bit obsessive with grammar I would observe that there was a time when the phrase “Dysfunctional petty out of control” would have been used to isolate a a certain minority group of that party.
These days it is an effort not to find oneself using the whole “Dysfunctional petty out of control republicans”. as a blanket term for the entire party and have to remind oneself that logic suggests there are some balanced and decent ones there, somewhere.
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Here’s what you need to know …
The House will take no further votes this week
Snot-nosed shit shut stuff down again
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