Kevin McCarthy Makes Key Promise in Attempt to Secure Speaker Votes
However, nine Republicans rejected McCarthy’s proposed rules while five remain committed to the no vote.
Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) promised to make removing the House Speaker easier to secure more votes to become Speaker of the House.
The new rule would allow “for any five Republican representatives to force of vote of no confidence in the Speaker.”
Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s rules stated a House Leadership member of the majority party had “to initiate a vote” against the Speaker.
The new promise goes with McCarthy’s vow to end “proxy voting and virtual participation in hearings.”
McCarthy wrote to his colleagues:
“Just as the Speaker is elected by the whole body, we will restore the ability for any 5 members of the majority party to initiate a vote to remove the Speaker if so warranted,” he wrote in a letter to his Republican colleagues on Sunday.
“Congress was never intended for Zoom, and no longer will members be able to phone it in while attending lavish international weddings or sailing on their boat. We will meet, gather and debate in person — just as the founders envisioned,” he added.
The Republicans have control of the House with this new Congress but with a small majority.
McCarthy needs 218 votes to become Speaker. You can read all the new proposed rules here.
Five Republicans already said they would not vote for McCarthy on Tuesday:
- Andy Biggs (AZ)
- Matt Gaetz (FL)
- Bob Good (VA)
- Ralph Norman (SC)
- Matt Rosendale (MT)
Good said this morning on Fox News:
I won’t vote for Kevin McCarthy tomorrow. He’s part of the problem. He’s not part of the solution. I’ll be following the will of my constituents, the voters from Virginia’s Fifth District, hundreds of which have told me over the past couple of years not to support Kevin McCarthy. What I told them when I started my first term two years ago is I would judge him by what he did as minority leader. And there’s nothing he’s done to earn my vote. There’s nothing that indicates to me that he’s going to change his pattern since he’s been in leadership where he’s part of the swamp cartel. He’s the reason on the Republican side why we passed massive omnibus spending bills like just got rammed down our throats by Republicans in the Senate. He was part of that in leadership, since he’s been in leadership over the past eight years. There’s nothing about Kevin McCarthy that indicates that he will bring the change that’s needed to Washington or that’s needed to the Congress, or he’ll bring the fight against the Biden-Schumer agenda and represent the interests of the voters who sent us to Washington to bring real change.
Good also mentioned the five Republicans have a backup candidate, but did not name him: “You’ll see that name tomorrow on the second ballot.”
Nine Republicans do not approve of McCarthy’s proposed rules:
- Dan Bishop (NC)
- Andrew Clyde (GA)
- Eli Crane (AZ)
- Paul Gosar (AZ)
- Andy Harris (MD)
- Anna Paulina Luna (FL)
- Andy Ogles (TN)
- Scott Perry (PA)
- Chip Roy (TX)
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Comments
Yeah McCarthy, that was the blockbuster, make or break political issue to woo Republican voters over to your side.
I mean nothing of any import or concern to the rest of the nation has happened in the last 2 years or so. Just millions of people sitting around wondering how to get rid of you if the other morons vote you in.
The current rule is a majority party leadership member must initiate a floor vote to remove the Speaker. That means any one of only four Representatives in the House is allowed to call a vote for the removal of the Speaker.
Having the rule changed to any five members of the 221* Republican majority being able to initiate the vote is a significant change. Will there be any effort to remove whomever the Republicans elect Speaker? Who knows? The move is an “inside baseball” issue solely for politicians whom McCarthy is hoping to sway to vote for him. Voters are not involved, other than by petitioning their Representative to vote to remove the Speaker and how many would do that?
* Last figure I recollect.
If you think squishes are illiterate and won’t use it to save their seats in 2024 you are deluding yourself.
We aren’t even talking about purple district Republicans we are discussing blue district ones.
We need a powerful speaker if we are to keep any of them in line.
Kevin! McCarthy reminds of the excitement around Jeb! Bush. Remember: Jeb! Bush was almost the GOP nominee in 2016 (meaning Hillary Clinton would have been elected president), till a knight in shining armor named Donald Trump came charging in.
Kevin! McCarthy is very poorly cast as a GOP Speaker. Had he been a ‘natural’, he’d secure in the post by now. But he’s not. In fact, he’s ambitious without the talent to be where he wants to go.
Fine, you wrote: “Remember: Jeb! Bush was almost the GOP nominee in 2016.” That’s not even remotely close to true. He didn’t win a single primary, and if memory serves, didn’t even finish in the top two or three in a SINGLE one. He dropped out in February, 2016 after losing not just in Iowa and NH but in South Carolina.
Jeb! was never going to get the nomination in 2016, let alone “was almost the GOP nominee.” Trump didn’t topple him, he was never a good candidate for president, and GOP primary voters rejected him in primary state after primary state.
Someone who drops out in February of an election year is not someone who “almost” won the GOP nomination. Let’s not rewrite history, especially such recent history that we all remember very well.
President Trump destroyed Jeb, destroyed him.
Jeb was the anointed one, he was the one the money handlers wanted
He was actually a decent Governor, it we know that game now, and payed too many times
That assumes that at best, the primary kabuki means anything, and at worst, it still means anything in our half of the Swamp Uniparty.
I still recall how the state parties “gaveled over” victories by Ron Paul in favor of Mittens.
Say, Fuzzy, who’s the veep (and quite possibly our next Puppresident by Right of Survivorship)? How’d she do in them primaries?
Kamala Harris “almost won” the Democratic nomination . . . just as Jeb! “almost won” the GOP nomination. Not by any stretch of the imagination.
My point exactly. Yet, she ended up in the catbird seat, voters be damned.
If you don’t think the swamp had (maybe still has) something like that in mind for Jeb, you’re not paranoid enough.
I’d like to see the objections to the proposed new rules. I wouldn’t expect pettifogging from Chip Roy, but anything is possible.
My prediction (hope?) Lee Zeldin in the second or third ballot as the comprise consensus choice for Speaker.
He’s no longer a member.
The Speaker of the House doesn’t need to be a member.
Exactly. The members can choose nearly whomever they wish as Speaker.
I’m just stoked that I got to Milhouse Milhouse.
Perhaps, Mc Carthy would be in a better spot if he outlined a real agenda.
Or hadn’t worked with McConnell to compromise elections so that only “his” part of the Party got in
And moved out of his bf’s apartment in DC
Mr Lutz…
Kevin! McCarthy is making it up as he goes. He has no core.
The fact that he’s losing more support is at least an encouraging sign.
“Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) promised to make removing the House Speaker easier to secure more votes to become Speaker of the House.”
Why bother to make it easier to get rid of him later when we can get rid of him NOW.
NOW works for me.
This “no speaker of the house” agenda by a series of Republican idiots really has to stop before Nancy Pelosi returns as speaker.
House Speaker is the ONLY powerful position we secured we need the speaker to be powerful.
How many of the squishes who just barely got us across the finish line to give us the majority do you think will be giving up their seats for the 2024 election?
All of them maybe? Or if you are sane the correct answer is zero.
The political pressure on the winners of blue districts to “do something about extreme right stopping Biden from (fill in blank)” will be intense and the pressure on them to invoke the no confidence vote to get things their districts want from them will be intense. The reason? If it only takes 5 to trigger a no confidence vote….well then the actual congressmen who got us the house will have no choice will they?
This grandstanding really has to stop. If you have a better house speaker make with the name this instant, if not stop trying to harm us by eliminating the position.
We have tried the weak executive thing; we call it the McClusky’s losing their right to keep and bear arms because the only thing the governor could do to oversee justice in his state was a pardon post conviction.
We tried the libertarian thing; we call it fascistic oligarchic control of all means of communications
We tried the no big government influence thing; we call it CRT and radical gender theory as we scramble to hit the undo button and actually gain some influence over education and work places.
Lets not try the no house speaker when WE KNOW large numbers of the Republican Caucus are from blue districts and will vote with Democrats if the house speaker isn’t powerful enough to keep them in line.
Lee Zeldin is the name. Recall that a Speaker doesn’t have to be a member of the HoR. Respected by most with recent success in helping down ballot r candidates successfully cross the finish line in NY. He isn’t a bomb thrower or a squish. There’s plenty of low hanging culture war fruit to go after that isn’t really controversial. In addition he has been in DC long enough to understand how to make the HoR function.
The other half the coin in your worry about less committed r members from blue States is appearing right now. A growing bloc of members from red CD in safe seats refusing to be taken for granted. Their votes are just as important to secure as a moderate from a swing CD in a blue State. It’s past time that the DC establishment is forced to acknowledge that simple fact.
Lee Zeldin in a position where he could be undermined at any given time as long as 5 Rs decide to do so would absolutely suck as speaker, his authority would correctly be perceived to be zero, his ability to block things from the senate would be zero and his ability to keep the Republican moderates in line to block things he opposes would also be zero.
Second this isn’t an issue of swing seat Rs this is an issue of blue seat Rs and there are enough of them to make Democrats win; or at the very least under this abolish the speaker position to trigger a vote of no confidence.
Third the flip side is not try to abolish the position of speaker the flip side is put your own candidate up for speaker. I have not seen any of the current stupidity crusaders suggest the name Lee Zeldin, I have seen you do it but not them.
“Lee Zeldin in a position where he could be undermined at any given time as long as 5 Rs decide to do so”
What are you talking about? That was what McCarthy offered to get Speaker votes. It would apply to him. Zeldin didn’t offer it, and wouldn’t be bound by it.
It is what the insurgents demanded and got from McCarthy.
Lee Zeldin or anyone else in the same position will do horribly.
Perhaps they could have put up their own candidate instead of coming up with yet another idiot revolution for us to support.
All of the 21st century Republican revolutionary ideas we came up with failed; we need to get back to basics, and stop with revolutionizing things. We need to use the house speaker’s power not abolish it.
The upstarts demanded it of McCarthy specifically because they know who McCarthy is. It’s illogical to expect they will also demand it of Zeldin.
But I agree with you that “we need to use the house speaker’s power, not abolish it.” And none of that will happen if McCarthy retains the seat, either. He’s a known antagonist to our principles.
Danny,
The days of the DC establishment globalist cabal putting corporate interests ahead of populist interests unchecked are coming to a close. The members in safe seats representing deep Red CD in Red States are going to be pushing back.
The old style compromise of ask for tax cuts and defense spending in exchange for participating in passage of d/prog boondoggles isn’t attractive any longer. At least not to the Populist wing which also has enough votes to wreck the trains.
The days of rural r members being taken for granted and their acquiescence a foregone conclusion are over. These more populist members will also have demands of leadership and in policies. The DC establishment cabal ignores this new reality at its peril.
What is happening now is exactly what we want.
Our overly few but strongly dedicated MAGA electees are flexing their muscles in one of the only remaining ways available to a minority their size to ensure that MAGA has a say in the upcoming congress. If they won’t do that for us, why the hell did we elect them? It wasn’t to run business as usual. Screw that.
So, you suggest that we cave to “moderate” left wing republicans who will bend to the will of democrats, only because the democrats in their districts may oust them 2 years hence?
How about we get a Republican speaker who will be a strong speaker who follows the will of the Republican voters who gave enough new members to give them back the majority?
Every issue you bring up has been the result of feckless republicans with a go along get along mindset. It’s long past time that we get a leader who has a backbone to do the will of the voters, not the will of the uniparty.
If any number of republicans vote with democrats to make Pelosi speaker, those republicans aren’t republicans. They are sleeper democrats who are worse than RINOs. They are democrats.
Give one example from the post you are pretending to respond to where I said we need to cave.
The only people caving are the people who want to give squish republicans from blue districts the ability to call a vote of no confidence in the speaker to FORCE things to the left.
We have a 5 seat majority; the abolition of the speakers power by giving any Republican the ability to bring him down is the definition of surrender to the left. Bills from the senate will be impossible to defeat.
The McCloskeys didn’t “lose their right to keep and bear arms.” They just had those particular two guns permanently stolen by the state. Not that it matters, since I think they were awarded at least two commemorative replacements free from grateful pro-rights groups.
A judge ruled they are still felons despite the pardon.
Besides don’t you like the idea that the executive could prevent railroading?
You just make things up, Danny.
They pled guilty to misdemeanors. They are not felons.
There’s this thing called Google. You should learn how to use it.
“This grandstanding really has to stop. If you have a better house speaker make with the name this instant…”
Anyone.
A RINO is taking a page from the liberal playbook, surprise.
“Any 5” basically means the never-Trump no-MAGA squishes will control who is Speaker.
STEVE SCALISE… he’s paid his dues
This isn’t about “dues” or whose “turn” it is. It’s about who will can lead the battle. The “dues payers” are the hacks who owe their souls.
He’s a good guy a conservative not the war consigliere we need right now, but I think he is better than McCarthy and could get the votes…. Just saying
Leaving aside the minor point that electoral politics are pretty much over; there is another problem. The only thing in this country’s politics that is more consistent than the Democrats lying to everybody, is the GOPe lying to its own voters and constituents. What basis is there to believe anything that McCarthy promises?
Subotai Bahadur
Here’s your basis: Kevin! McCarthy’s word is his bond. Until McConnell tells him otherwise.
That’s nice. McCarthy, McConnell and Rona are everything that is wrong with the Swamp and why I will not vote Republican until they are gone. To hell with them
The GOP is like a building so infested with termites that the only recourse is to burn it down.
Burn the GOP to the ground and built it from scratch. And cut-off Rona Romney’s limosine budget.