Kevin McCarthy has lost the House speaker’s gavel in a conservative revolt against his speakership by his own party, The vote was 216-210, with eight Republicans voting to remove McCarthy. This was a historic moment. McCarthy is the first Speaker ousted through the passage of a resolution to remove him.
To win over critics and secure the speaker’s gavel in January, McCarthy made a series of concessions to conservatives. Almost anything that they wanted. One major concession was the ability of any one member to offer what’s known as a motion to vacate the speaker’s chair – a move that can trigger a House floor vote to oust the speaker. On Tuesday, MAGA Rep Matt Gates, (a political light weight), offered a motion to vacate the chair on the House floor.
Gates follows a long tradition of Republicans eating their own. Previous Speakers pushed out into retirement are Newt Gingrich, John Boehner and Paul Ryan.
After the Democrats came to McCarthy’s aid avoiding a government shutdown last Saturday, some thought they may do this again and save McCarthy. However, some Democrats said that after having saved McCarthy on Saturday, he immediately went to the cameras and trashed them. Thus, there was no appetite for helping him.
This reminded me of the story of the lady and the snake. The lady finds a severely injured snake lying on the floor. She picks up the snake and nurses it back to health. Once saved, the snake bites the woman. The woman asks the snake why he bit her. The snake replies, after all you knew I was a snake when you picked me up.
Republicans have no plan how to move forward.