NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: A marathon bid has been launched to find a new GOP House Speaker after Kevin McCarthy was ousted from his leadership spot.
The 58-year-old former house speaker was booted out on Tuesday, October 4, when eight conservative Republicans joined Democrats to approve a 'motion to vacate' introduced by GOP Rep Matt Gaetz.
The 216-to-210 vote marked the first time in US history that a speaker of the House has been removed from office, marking an ignominious end to a short and fraught tenure for the California Republican.
The historic vote serves as a stark reminder of the increasing tensions within the Republican Party, with its hard-right faction battling with McCarthy numerous times since he initially took office in January 2019.
Who can be Kevin McCarthy's successor?
Moments after McCarthy’s ouster, his top ally Rep Patrick McHenry, R-NC, was named Speaker pro tempore, and will serve in office until a new Speaker is chosen.
However, several Republicans are planning to meet on October 10 to discuss possible McCarthy successors, with a vote on a new speaker planned for October 11, according to Reuters.
Several names have been tossed out as potential speakers, including members of McCarthy's own leadership team like Steve Scalise and Tom Emmer.
For the leadership position, Gaetz also suggested the names of Reps Mike Johnson, Kevin Hern, and Jodey Arrington. He even suggested he 'might call up' former New York GOP Rep Lee Zeldin.
On Wednesday morning, House Democrats will convene to choose their own speaker candidate. They are expected to name Hakeem Jeffries, their leader who ran (and lost) for speaker in January.
Will Kevin McCarthy again run for Speaker of the House?
After being ousted from his spot, McCarthy announced in a press conference, “I will not run for speaker again. I may have lost the vote today. But as I walk out of this chamber, I feel fortunate to have served the American people."
He later took a dig at Democrats, particularly their longtime leader Nancy Pelosi, and his nemesis Gaetz, claiming that he was removed because of politics.
“I think today was a political decision by the Democrats. And I think I think the things they have done in the past hurt the institution,” McCarthy said, according to Daily Mail.
He also asserted that “unfortunately, four percent of our conference can join all the Democrats and dictate who can be the Republican Speaker in this House. I don't think that rule is good for the institution, but apparently, I'm the only one. I wouldn't change a thing.”
Internet warns Democrats about Kevin McCarthy's successor
McCarthy’s ouster has garnered immense social media attention, with users warning Democrats that his successor could be their real nightmare.
“Won’t the next Speaker be even worse? At least Kevin was in favor of funding Ukraine,” one user suggested.
“The democrats deserve whatever happens next. @SpeakerMcCarthy kept the government open by reaching across the aisle and the democrats showed their appreciation by letting him get axed,” a second one asserted.
“Seems like there is a lot more going on than we could even imagine,” a third user suspected.
However, there were also some users who slammed McCarthy for blaming Democrats for his ouster. “This wild cuz the Dems had no power to remove him. He’s showing why he deserves to be ousted,” one user wrote.
“Your lies got u ousted. And u still aren’t man enough to admit the truth!” another one stated.
