Forty-five Republican House members signed a joint letter Thursday labeling the removal of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy shameful and calling on the GOP colleagues to fundamentally change the chamber’s rules, so it cannot happen again.
Republicans currently hold a slim 221–212 majority in the House.
Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, along with seven other Republicans, joined all the House Democrats to remove McCarthy as speaker on Tuesday. The final vote was 216-210.
Gaetz and the others who joined him in the vote were upset about McCarthy pushing a continuing resolution through to fund the federal government through mid-November with majority Democratic support.
In a Thursday letter, 45 lawmakers—including Reps. Dan Crenshaw of Texas, Maria Elvira Salazar of Florida, and Jason Smith of Missouri—wrote, “Ashamed and embarrassed by what happened on the floor this week, we refuse to allow the eight members who abandoned and undermined our conference to dictate every outcome in policy and personnel for the remainder of this Congress, including the upcoming selection of the Speaker of the House.
“We cannot allow our majority to be dictated to by the alliance between the chaos caucus and the minority party that will do nothing more than guarantee the failure of our next Speaker,” they added.
“The injustice we all witnessed cannot go unaddressed, lest we bear responsibility for the consequences that follow. Our conference must address fundamental changes to the structure of our majority to ensure success for the American people,” the GOP members concluded.
Read all their names here.
These House Republicans’ fury may be unnecessary given Gaetz, and presumably those who joined him in ousting McCarthy, are fine with either House Majority Leader Steve Scalise or House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan becoming the next speaker.
Scalise and Jordan are the only two declared candidates at this point.
Gaetz told Newsmax Wednesday that he nominated Jordan in January to be speaker, and called Scalise “a great guy” that he could also vote for.
“I know this,” Gaetz continued, “if it’s Speaker Jim Jordan or Speaker Steve Scalise, there will be very few conservatives in the country who don’t see that as a monumental upgrade over Speaker McCarthy.”
"I know this, if it's Speaker Jim Jordan or Speaker Steve Scalise there will be very few conservatives in the country who don't see that as a monumental upgrade over Speaker McCarthy." — @RepMattGaetz@BiancaDLGarza pic.twitter.com/iHhdCo4ISp
— NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) October 4, 2023
Scalise told Politico on Friday that he would be open to changing the rule that allowed one member to bring a motion to vacate the chair.
However, “It’s going to take everybody in our conference working together if we’re going to change that,” he further noted.
As context, when Nancy Pelosi became speaker again in 2018, she set in place a rule that required a majority of her caucus to back the motion.
If the issue becomes a sticking point within the GOP caucus as they seek to replace McCarthy, it would seem a good compromise would require at least some significant faction within the House party members to bring the motion to vacate the chair.
Maybe a good compromise now would be 10 or 20 members, so the next speaker has some firmness in the position but knows if he or she strays too far, removal could readily result.
McCarthy was always on somewhat tenuous ground when he assumed the speakership after 15 rounds of votes in January, which required several concessions, including allowing just a single member to bring a motion to vacate.
With someone picked to be a speaker that conservatives have more faith in, there is likely a deal to be reached that mostly satisfies the factions within the GOP.
via westernjournal
