Kevin McCarthy’s wild ride as US House speaker ends in historic fall

WASHINGTON: Kevin McCarthy began his wild ride as speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives in a chaotic January week and ended it nine months later in a historic fall, when he became the first speaker to be removed from the top post.

Two decisions by the California Republican contributed to his undoing.

The first came during the agonizing 15 votes he endured over four days early this year when he agreed to a change of House rules allowing any single member of the House to call for a motion to oust the speaker. Coupled with his narrow 221-212 majority, that made it relatively easy for a single hard-right member, Representative Matt Gaetz, to call for his ouster.

The second came on Saturday, when McCarthy opted to avert triggering a partial government shutdown by introducing a stopgap funding bill that passed the House with more Democratic than Republican votes.

Gaetz had been threatening to move against McCarthy for days at that point, and a senior Republican told Reuters at the time that McCarthy had concluded he would face a challenge to his leadership no matter what he did.

Also read: What’s next after Kevin McCarthy’s historic ouster as Speaker?

“I want to keep government open while we finish our job,” McCarthy told reporters when he emerged from a closed-door Saturday morning party meeting where he laid out that plan.

On Tuesday, eight members of his party joined 208 Democrats to oust McCarthy as speaker in a 216-210 vote. McCarthy will continue as a rank-and-file member of the House.

McCarthy, who had managed to smile through much of the Tuesday’s ordeal, soon chose not to stand again for the position and struck a gracious tone at a press conference.

“I may have lost a vote today. But as I walk out of this chamber, I feel fortunate to have served the American people,” McCarthy, 58, told reporters. “It was my greatest honor to be able to do it.”

He had angered lawmakers of both parties during his time as speaker.

He steered a narrow majority, currently 221-212, through a long spring standoff that saw the U.S. come perilously close to defaulting on its $31.4 trillion in debt. Just a few months later, shutdown loomed.

Republican hardliners, cheered on by former President Donald Trump, urged McCarthy to push harder against the Democratic-majority Senate and President Joe Biden, to demand cuts to federal spending on domestic social programs and other conservative priorities.

Members of his own party repeatedly rejected measures McCarthy brought to the floor.