Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was ousted from the leadership post Tuesday in a historic far right-wing revolt, as Democrats refused to step in to save the rival party leader.
McCarthy became the first sitting speaker to lose the gavel after a handful of fellow Republican lawmakers voted to remove him days after he forged a compromise with Democrats to avert a government shutdown.
He lost 210-216, with a few lawmakers absent.
Led by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida), the small group of right-wing rebels exacted the ultimate congressional revenge on McCarthy.
Democrats, led by Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, helped sink McCarthy when they remained unified in lockstep opposition.
That left McCarthy swinging in the wind as he faced down the small, angry faction of ultra-conservative Republicans who were determined to topple their own party’s leader.
“They must find a way to end the House Republican Civil War,” Jeffries tweeted.
The House of Representatives will now be effectively leaderless until it can elect a new speaker. It was unclear how long that might take or if McCarthy could yet win back the gavel.
McCarthy was non-committal about whether he would try to run to recover his post.
Some of McCarthy’s allies vowed that he would fight to eventually return to power. They predicted that no other Republican lawmaker would be able to cobble the needed nearly unanimous support of the fractious caucus.
In January, it took McCarthy a remarkable 15 votes to win election as speaker, the post he has coveted for decades.
The California Republican, once known as an amiable establishment figure, was forced to make a string of questionable concessions to Gaetz and other far right-wing lawmakers, including agreeing that any single member could force a move to oust him.
That effectively hobbled McCarthy’s speakership, leaving him continually swatting away challenges big and small.
The rebels became ever more irate when McCarthy forged an agreement with President Biden to raise the debt ceiling in the spring.
The last straw came with the chaotic final days leading to the government shutdown. After vowing for weeks that he would not work with Democrats, McCarthy did just that to forge an 11th-hour deal.
Gaetz, a staunch supporter of former President Donald Trump, quickly made good on his pledge to oust McCarthy.
He says McCarthy also cut a backroom deal with Democrats to pass defense aid to embattled Ukraine, which he and other Trump supporters oppose.
Gaetz said he had spoken to Trump, the most powerful figure in the GOP, about the anti-McCarthy rebellion but refused to say whether he endorsed it.
Trump himself was uncharacteristically quiet as the drama played out in Washington, D.C., apparently distracted by his civil fraud trial in New York.
On Tuesday, both Republicans and Democrats met behind closed doors to hash out their positions ahead of the historic afternoon vote.
McCarthy rallied his Republican supporters, winning three standing ovations and an overwhelming show of hands in support of his bid to remain in power.
He emerged sounding a confident note, even if he couldn’t explain to reporters how he would overcome daunting math.
Across the Capitol, one Democrat after another dashed any hope from McCarthy supporters that they might toss him a political lifeline.
Lawmakers from across the Democratic spectrum denounced McCarthy as an untrustworthy political chameleon and a fig leaf for the extremist MAGA wing of the party.
“At the end of the day, the country needs a speaker that can be relied upon,” said Rep. Adam Schiff (D-California). “We don’t trust him. Their members don’t trust him.”
Many Democrats recalled what they called McCarthy’s shameful actions following the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
After briefly denouncing Trump as being “responsible” for inciting the violent attack, he journeyed to Mar-a-Lago to kiss the former president’s ring.
Other Democrats roasted McCarthy for launching an impeachment inquiry into President Biden, which they view as a baseless publicity stunt.
With McCarthy out as speaker, Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-North Carolina) will serve as interim speaker.
