McCarthy says the House will vote today on the effort to oust him as speaker
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U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., speaks to reporters at the U.S. Capitol on Monday.Saul Loeb / AFP via Getty Images -
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., speaks at a news conference after the House passed a short-term funding bill on Saturday, joined by House Minority Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass., and Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., chair of the House Democratic Caucus.Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's grasp on his leadership role is, once again, looking precarious.
Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., made good on his long-standing threat to file a motion to vacate on Monday night, taking the first procedural step toward forcing a vote to remove McCarthy as speaker. And McCarthy told reporters Tuesday that he will bring up the motion to vacate today, but it remains unclear how much support he has.
At issue, Gaetz said, is McCarthy's refusal to adhere to promises he made to hard-line House Republicans earlier this year to win their support for the speakership in the first place — and McCarthy's reliance on Democratic votes to narrowly avoid a government shutdown over the weekend.
McCarthy is accusing Gaetz of harboring a grudge over his refusal to quash a congressional ethics complaint against him over allegations of sexual misconduct and illegal drug use that emerged in 2021, telling CNBC on Tuesday morning that Gaetz has "personal things in his life that he has challenges with."
And McCarthy welcomed the challenge, describing it as "a fight worth having."
"Will I get removed because four or five Republicans joined with all the Democrats? That's the question here," he said. "If 98% of the conference wants you to be speaker, but you create a Congress where four people can determine if they work with the other side, how strong is the continuity of the government itself?"
Perhaps paradoxically, McCarthy's speakership title could be in Democrats' hands.
And with hours to go before the vote, they're not looking likely to help.
Emerging from their weekly caucus meeting on Tuesday morning, Reps. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., and Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., told reporters that House Democrats agreed to vote together against saving McCarthy in any way.
"There is reason after reason to just let Republicans deal with their own problems," Jayapal said. "Let them wallow in their pigsty of incompetence and inability to govern."
Democrats say they'll prioritize the public interest
McCarthy still appears to have the support of the majority of the 221 House Republicans, and some even tried to convince Gaetz not to move forward with the vote, despite their own frustrations with McCarthy, as NPR has reported.
Republicans hold only a slim four-seat majority in the House, the 212 Democrats could play a major role in either blocking or passing it.
House Democrats have not officially taken a position. Some have suggested in recent days that they would be willing to help McCarthy — who directed an impeachment inquiry into President Biden just last month — but not without a cost.
Massachusetts Rep. Katherine Clark, the House minority whip, told Morning Edition before Tuesday's meeting that she was not aware of McCarthy having offered any concessions.
She said McCarthy has "eroded any trust that he had going forward," and that Democrats need to think carefully about whether they would even want to make a deal with him.
"We are going to have to see if and when Kevin McCarthy offers something, but it is hard to trust someone who had a negotiation with the president of the United States, signed a deal — 314 of us already voted on that in the bipartisan way — and he walked away," she said, referring to the debt ceiling fight earlier this year.
Clark noted that the GOP infighting — which she described as a "full-scale civil war" — has an impact on "people at home who are worried about the GOP's attacks on Social Security, on our public schools, on the freedom of reproductive rights in this country."
That's what Democrats will keep in mind during their discussions on Tuesday, she added.
"We are going to make that decision the way that we look at everything we do in the House: What is the best way to make progress for the American people?"
-- Kelsey Snell contributed to this story.
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Transcript
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy could face a vote that might cost him his job. Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz of Florida has followed through on a threat to McCarthy's leadership and taken the first step toward removing him. He's filed what's called a motion to vacate. The challenge follows the weekend deal with Democrats to avert a government shutdown.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
MATT GAETZ: If Kevin McCarthy works for Democrats and utilizes Democrats in order to keep power, that would be consistent with everything we've seen from him. And we need someone who can connect the most conservative features of our conference to the most moderate features of our conference.
MARTÍNEZ: If Speaker McCarthy can't find consensus within his own party, he could look to votes from Democrats to save his job. Massachusetts Representative Katherine Clark is House minority whip. She joins us now. Representative, what would it take for you to get behind Kevin McCarthy as House speaker?
KATHERINE CLARK: Well, I can tell you how House Democrats are looking at this. What we are witnessing is a full-scale civil war in the House GOP. And we are going to make a decision, maybe as early as this morning, on how to move forward. And we are going to make that decision the way that we look at everything we do in the House - what is the best way to make progress for the American people? That is our touchstone, and that's how we're going to evaluate how to move forward with this critical vote on Speaker McCarthy.
MARTÍNEZ: You said as early as this morning that you might move forward. What kind of concessions would your party be looking for in exchange for helping McCarthy keep his job?
CLARK: We're going to come together this morning as a Democratic caucus for family discussion on how to proceed. But what we are looking at is a situation where Kevin McCarthy has eroded any trust that he had going forward. That is the backdrop as we look at - back at how he came into power by catering to Marjorie Taylor Greene and the most extreme factions of his conference. And who has been left out of this? Our people at home, who are worried about the GOP's attacks on Social Security, on our public schools, on the freedom of reproductive rights in this country. And we've seen this. We've already seen Kevin McCarthy and the House GOP bring us to the edge of a cataclysmic default on our economy that could have plunged us into a global recession. Kevin McCarthy made a deal that he has never lived up to.
MARTÍNEZ: So if he has eroded trust, as you said, would you be able to trust him to make a deal with him to keep him in his position?
CLARK: You know, that is - we are going to have to see if and when Kevin McCarthy offers something. But it is hard to trust someone who made - had a negotiation with the president of the United States, signed a deal. Three hundred and fourteen of us already voted on that in a bipartisan way, and he walked away.
MARTÍNEZ: So he hasn't offered anything yet? He hasn't - McCarthy has not offered your caucus anything yet?
CLARK: To the best of my knowledge, he has not.
MARTÍNEZ: OK. The temporary resolution that passed last weekend does not include any money at all for Ukraine. Will Democrats make Ukraine a must-have provision for any future spending deal that still has to happen?
CLARK: You know, we are very concerned that the House GOP catered to the pro-Putin caucus in their party and left behind the fight for this democracy. And we are clear-eyed that when we are helping Ukraine fight for their survival as a sovereign nation, we are helping our national security and our democracy. So this is very much going to be part of the discussions because it's critical to remember that the stopgap measure that we passed only extended the federal budget for 45 days. So in mid-November, we are going to be right back at this negotiation.
MARTÍNEZ: Part of the discussion or a deal-breaker for Democrats?
CLARK: You know, it could be both. What we are urging is that Kevin McCarthy bring up a standalone bill. We had one in the House, and that allowed us to make sure that we were getting support. We know the votes are there if they'll bring it to the floor.
MARTÍNEZ: All right. That's Massachusetts Democrat Katherine Clark, the minority whip in the House. Thank you very much for your time.
CLARK: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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