WASHINGTON, Oct 1 (Reuters) - Top U.S. House Republican Kevin McCarthy said on Sunday he expected to survive a threat to his speakership after a hardline critic within his party called for his ouster following the passage of a stopgap government funding bill that drew more support from Democrats than Republicans.
Hardline Republican Representative Matt Gaetz told multiple U.S. media outlets he would file a "motion to vacate," a call for a vote to remove McCarthy as speaker, testing McCarthy's support in the House of Representatives, which his party controls by a narrow 221-212 margin.
Assuming that the Dems don't adopt him, that is.
Gaetz plans to move quickly to oust him.
Gaetz is one of a group of about two dozen hardliners who forced McCarthy to endure a withering 15 rounds of voting in January before he was elected speaker, during which they squeezed out concessions, including a rule change to allow any one House member to call for a vote to oust the speaker.
It was not clear how much support McCarthy would have in such a vote, or whether any Democrats would back him. McCarthy angered Democrats last month by launching an impeachment inquiry of President Joe Biden.
"If at this time next week Kevin McCarthy is still speaker of the House, it will be because Democrats bailed him out," Gaetz said in an interview on ABC. "I am relentless and I will continue to pursue this objective."
McCarthy stunned Washington on Saturday when he backed a bill to fund the government through Nov. 17, averting a partial shutdown but not imposing any of the spending cuts or changes to border security that his hardline colleagues had called for.
That part in red may be the nail in McCarthy's coffin as far as being speaker. So, who will it be?
Obviously, there is no need to select the next speaker before voting to vacate the chair. I say "obviously," but apparent some who are old enough to know better think that is a requirement. Once KM is gone, that fight will start. I see three ways to go, with shades in between:
1) The RINO's put up one of their own and the Freedom Caucus fights them, this time being very leery to accept promises.
2) The Freedom Caucus puts up one of their own and the RINO opposition keeps them from going anywhere.
3) The non-RINO's/non-Freedom Republicans put up one and both of the ends of the spectrum negotiate for their votes.
Who are the NR/NF's? I would say those among the 90 Republicans who voted no on the CR, but are not members of the FC. That is 45 NR/NF's.
It will be an interesting week, and I don't think that we will have a new Speaker anytime soon. I don't know what the procedure is when there is no Speaker in a situation like that. The articles I can find warn of dire consequences, and a House that cannot function. But that was when the issue was no Speaker in January following the 2022 turnover of the House.
The most senior member of the House is a Republican named Hal Rogers, known as the "Dean of the House." As the House operates on seniority for so much of its business, maybe he would be followed if he stepped up as acting Speaker.
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