Kevin McCarthy has been ousted as speaker of the House Here's what happens next.

Table Of Content

• House GOP rebels recall a distant era when dissidents rose up against 'Czar Cannon'
• Biden officials indefinitely postpone ban on menthol cigarettes amid election-year pushback
• The stalled effort to elect a House speaker
• Law that ended single-family zoning is struck down for five Southern California cities
• AP AUDIO: Ousted House Speaker Kevin McCarthy says he’s resigning and will leave Congress by year’s end.
• Votes cast by members

In addition to being the first Black lawmaker to attain such a position, Jeffries is also the first person elected to lead House Democrats to be born after the end of World War II. Clark’s ascension to a top House leadership position comes less than 10 years after she entered Congress representing Massachusetts’ 5th Congressional District, a Democratic stronghold outside Boston. She won a special election in 2013 to succeed Democrat Ed Markey, following his election to the Senate, and has comfortably won reelection ever since. A firm supporter of President Joe Biden’s agenda, Clark is a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and has served on the powerful House Appropriations Committee. She is an advocate of gun reform, Medicare for All and raising the federal minimum wage.

House GOP rebels recall a distant era when dissidents rose up against 'Czar Cannon'

The potential of a government shutdown began to take hold in July 2023, with the Freedom Caucus—in demonstrations of austerity and defiance toward McCarthy—opposing spending bills to fund the government. Following an unsuccessful motion to table by Representative Tom Cole, Republican Chair of the Rules Committee, Republican representatives debated McCarthy's speakership on the House floor. When the time for debate expired, the House voted to remove McCarthy, with insurgent Republicans and the minority Democrats voting against him. The speaker's chair was vacated and Patrick McHenry of North Carolina—a McCarthy ally—was made speaker pro tempore and the House went without a proper speaker until the October 25 election of Mike Johnson of Louisiana. McCarthy subsequently announced his resignation from Congress effective at the end of 2023. Jeffries’ position was made official after the conclusion of a prolonged floor fight that culminated in Republican Kevin McCarthy becoming House speaker.

Biden officials indefinitely postpone ban on menthol cigarettes amid election-year pushback

It has led to some privately calling for more time at home in their districts, knowing little will probably get done the rest of the year. Prior to that, the last Republican speaker had been Nicholas Longworth of Ohio, who died in 1931. Technically, he died as speaker, but his party lost its majority before the next Congress convened and elected a Democrat to the job. Ryan, then just 45, was the youngest speaker in nearly 150 years but had already been party's vice presidential nominee on the 2012 ticket. Ryan also had a strained relationship with then-President Donald Trump, with whom he had a falling out during the fall 2016 campaign.

The stalled effort to elect a House speaker

"There's negotiations and then there's holding the rest of us hostage and 20 don't get to do that to 201 [members-elect]." On Wednesday, a group of House Republican veterans held a news conference on the speaker standoff, which they referred to as being held hostage. The House could not conduct any business, including swearing in new members, until a speaker was chosen. The relief in the chamber was palpable as each dissenter shifted their support in favor of McCarthy, with Republicans bursting into applause and offering standing ovations to their colleagues who moved the needle closer to resolution. "Without question in my mind, Speaker Emerita Pelosi will go down in history as the greatest speaker of all time," he said.

McCarthy’s ouster from a job he long coveted was induced by far-right Republicans with the support of vengeance-minded Democrats. Hard-line Republicans joined with Democrats to remove the Bakersfield Republican from the speaker’s chair. Like most, the operative asked not to be quoted by name, to preserve his relationship with the ex-speaker. McCarthy declined to be interviewed, perhaps because of the ways — feckless, morally bankrupt — your friendly columnist has described him.

AP AUDIO: Ousted House Speaker Kevin McCarthy says he’s resigning and will leave Congress by year’s end.

McCarthy is a political animal down to his marrow and the speakership is a job he coveted much of his career. His tenure — less than nine months — lasted barely long enough to pose for the portrait that will someday hang in the Capitol. Jordan, the chairman of the powerful House Judiciary Committee, announced he is running Wednesday morning, telling reporters at the Capitol that he had heard from "a lot" of members urging him to mount a bid. "Pending such election, the member acting as speaker pro tempore may exercise such authorities of the Office of Speaker as may be necessary and appropriate to that end," the rules state.

Votes cast by members

Over the past year, far-right members have blocked debate seven times on the House floor. Earlier this year, members of the Freedom Caucus were pushing Johnson to pass a short-term government funding bill that included their border security bill, the exact proposal they rejected months earlier. Some more pragmatic Republicans argue their colleagues need to accept the reality and work under the confines of their slim majority, and a Democratic-controlled Senate and White House. House Speaker Newt Gingrich (center), shown here surrounded by House Republicans, holds up a copy of the "Contract With America" during a speech on April 7, 1995 on the steps of the U.S. Even a glance at the history of Republican speakers since World War II would tell him that. The durations mentioned below are calculated based on date differences; if one were to count by the number of calendar days, all the values would be one day longer.

It’s official: All 50 states have sent women to Congress

The House has voted to remove Kevin McCarthy as speaker, marking the first time in history that a House speaker has been removed in this way. California Democrat Pete Aguilar mentioned the attack during his speech Friday night after nominating Democrat Hakeem Jeffries of New York for speaker. McCarthy emerged victorious after Republicans Andy Biggs and Eli Crane of Arizona and Bob Good of Virginia voted "present," which lowered the threshold of support the GOP leader needed to win. The result also meant elected representatives have finally been sworn in as members of the 118th Congress, and the House can get to work.

For years, Kevin McCarthy wanted to be speaker of the House in the worst possible way, and that’s precisely what he accomplished by winning the leadership post after 15 humiliating rounds of voting and days of give-away-the-store negotiations. Even if McCarthy is able to secure the votes he needs, he will emerge as a weakened speaker, having given away some powers and constantly under a threat of being voted out by his detractors. But he would also be potentially emboldened as a survivor of one of the more brutal fights for the gavel in U.S. history. After McCarthy finally won election in the wee hours, the House finally adjourned and let everyone go home. After McCarthy failed again during a 14th vote late Friday night — falling short by just one vote — members of the leadership team surrounded Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) to get him to change his mind after he voted present, effectively abstaining. It got so heated that Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL), an ardent McCarthy ally, even lunged at Gaetz before being restrained by Reps. Richard Hudson (R-NC) and Garret Graves (R-LA).

McCarthy blames Gaetz's ethics problems for his ouster - POLITICO

McCarthy blames Gaetz's ethics problems for his ouster.

Posted: Tue, 09 Apr 2024 07:00:00 GMT [source]

Both of those concessions, agreed to by former Speaker Kevin McCarthy more than a year ago, are now tormenting Mr. Johnson as he tries to push through a $95 billion aid bill for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. They have hemmed him in to having to rely heavily on Democrats — not only to clear the way for the legislation and drag it across the finish line, but potentially to save his job. Speaker Mike Johnson’s push to advance an aid package for Ukraine in the face of vehement opposition from his own party was never going to be easy. The Republican speaker’s problems spring from his predecessor’s efforts to placate the far right as he grasped for the gavel. Now they are seeking to use the leverage they won then to get their way on the foreign aid bill.

That speaker was Joseph G. Cannon of Illinois, notorious as the autocratic "Czar Cannon" during three two-year tours as speaker that ended with his party's historic defeat in 1910. Those eight years actually made Hastert the longest-serving Republican speaker in history. But any luster left after 2006 was lost when he went to prison for bank fraud charges stemming from hush money payments he had made to a former student he admitted to having sexually abused decades earlier. Greene had vowed to press her challenge after Johnson announced a strategy to pass $95 billion in aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan earlier this month.

A more recent threat against John Boehner in 2015 didn’t make it to a vote but led him to early retirement. It was a stunning moment for McCarthy, a punishment fueled by growing grievances but sparked by his weekend decision to work with Democrats to keep the federal government open rather than risk a shutdown. Moments later, a top McCarthy ally, Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., took the gavel and, according to House rules, was named speaker pro tempore, to serve in the office until a new speaker is chosen.

"Congratulations Freedom Caucus for one and 105 Rep who expel our own for the other," Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., said on X. "I can assure you Republican voters didn't give us the majority to crash the ship. Hopefully no one dies." His exit is a blow to his successor, Speaker Mike Johnson, and House Republicans, further cutting the already narrow GOP majority and making passing legislation in 2024 even more challenging. Removing the speaker launches the House Republicans into chaos heading into a busy fall when Congress will need to fund the government again or risk a mid-November shutdown.

In January, when the 118th Congress convened and Republicans took power, it took 15 rounds of voting across four days for McCarthy to secure the support he needed to win the gavel. Mr. Gaetz said on Tuesday that lawmakers should not give the post to somebody willing to sell “shares of himself to get” it. Proponents of earmarks argue that they allow rank-and-file lawmakers to deliver for their constituents and smooth the process of keeping the government running, by giving members of Congress a tangible reason to vote in favor of spending bills. But Mr. McCarthy’s detractors, hard-line Republicans who have railed against federal spending, have demanded a commitment to crack down on the practice as a prerequisite for supporting him. Upon hearing that a speaker had not been elected, shouts of disappointment filled the air.

When Republicans went to the Texas-Mexico border earlier this year, members of the Freedom Caucus rented their own bus so as not to mingle with the larger group. In 1994, two years into the presidency of Democrat Bill Clinton, Gingrich organized a campaign around a 10-item agenda called the "Contract with America." It provided a unified message for the party's nominees, who flipped more than 50 seats and stormed into the majority. The current state of internal politics among House Republicans is so unsettled that almost anything could happen at almost any time. When the House returns from its recess next week, Speaker Mike Johnson is now widely expected to resume his duties without immediately facing a motion to oust him. Some have suggested that those opposing McCarthy could simply vote “present,” lowering his threshold to win — a tactic Pelosi and Boehner used to win with fewer than 218 votes. Outgoing Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) and the last two GOP speakers, John A. Boehner and Paul D. Ryan, faced similar challenges, but were able to use their position to hand out favors, negotiate deals and otherwise keep opponents in line — for a time.

One after another, they urged the speaker to tie the foreign aid package to stringent anti-immigration measures, but Mr. Johnson pushed back, replying that he would not have enough Republican support to advance such a measure, according to people involved in the private conversation. Gingrich managed to restore many of the powers of the speakership but clashed repeatedly with Clinton and even with Republican leaders in the Senate. In 1997, in his second Congress as speaker, he barely survived a largely covert challenge from within his own leadership team.