Kevin McCarthy voted OUT as Speaker: Republican becomes first House leader in American

Kevin McCarthy has been sensationally ousted as Speaker of the House in a historic vote sparked by a tumultuous civil war in the Republican party.

He became the first Speaker in the 234-year history of the United States Congress to be kicked out and have his gavel taken away by fellow lawmakers.

The humiliating end for McCarthy, 58, sent shockwaves across Capitol Hill and secured his title as the shortest-serving Speaker since 1875, following a rollercoaster tenure of less than a year.

It came after a rebellion led by his nemesis, Florida congressman Matt Gaetz, and a small group of hardline Republicans who viewed McCarthy as a weak conservative.

Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina stunned her colleagues by voting to boot McCarthy from leadership, and likely sealed his fate in a session filled with drama.

Kevin McCarthy has been sensationally ousted as Speaker of the House in a historic vote sparked by a tumultuous civil war in the Republican party. 

The GOP leader’s tenure came crashing down, nine months after he was elected after an unprecedented 15 rounds of votes.  

Republicans were left reeling as they tried to stave off a potential government shutdown next month.

McCarthy’s supporters called him a ‘happy warrior’ with ‘true American grit’.

But, speaking on the House floor, Gaetz said: ‘Chaos is speaker McCarthy. Chaos is somebody who we cannot trust with their word.

‘One thing that the White House, House Democrats, and many of us on the conservative side of the Republican caucus would argue is that the thing we have in common – Kevin McCarthy said something to all of us at one point or another that he didn’t really mean and never intended to live up to.

‘I don’t think voting against Kevin McCarthy is chaos. I think $33 trillion in debt is chaos. I think that facing a $2.2 trillion annual deficit is chaos.’

He added: ‘Let’s get on with it, lets vacate the chair, let’s get a better Speaker.’ 

McCarthy’s supporters booed and jeered at Gaetz as he tore into the Speaker ahead of the vote that officially removed him. 

Republicans control the chamber by a narrow 221-212 majority, meaning it took only a handful of defections to remove McCarthy.

It came after a rebellion led by his nemesis, Florida congressman Matt Gaetz , and a small group of hardline Republicans who viewed McCarthy as a weak conservative

Steve Scalise was one of the Republicans who came out in support of McCarthy 

McCarthy’s supporters called him a ‘happy warrior’ with ‘true American grit’

Gaetz and his allies criticized McCarthy for relying on Democratic votes to pass temporary funding that headed off a partial government shutdown last week.

They also said he had not pushed hard enough to cut spending, and was too willing to send money to Ukraine.

The anti-McCarthy Republicans have not coalesced around one alternative they’d like to put up for speaker. Gaetz has noted that the speaker does not even have to be a member of the House.

Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., told reporters there are ‘plenty of people’ who good do the job better than McCarthy. Gaetz said Monday night he’d like to see Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who is battling blood cancer, in the role, but seemed open to other options.

Burchett also said he wanted a speaker who didn’t want the job so badly.

He said last week he had a conversation with McCarthy, ‘the last thing he said was ‘I really wanna be speaker.’ And I think that sums up the whole thing … it’s not about one person.’

But McCarthy’s allies could continue to put him up for speaker again.