While it didn’t appear at first that Kevin McCarthy’s deal with President Biden would cause him to face a call for him to lose his gavel, one Congressman has made just such a call.
Kevin McCarthy in Jeopardy?
Back in January, when Kevin McCarthy was seeking the House Speakership, he lacked the votes at first and entered into negotiations with what was known as the “Never Kevin” caucus of hardline conservatives who opposed his ascension.
Eventually, McCarthy was elected Speaker, after agreeing to certain concessions.
One of those was a new rule that required only one member of the House to allow a “motion to vacate.”
The implication was that if McCarthy went against that caucus on a major issue, it cause McCarthy his gavel.
Now, it looks like that could happen.
After Kevin McCarthy reached an agreement, over the weekend, with President Biden to raise the debt ceiling, members of the House Republican Caucus expressed their opposition to the deal, believing that McCarthy could have gained more concessions.
And now, one member of Congress has come out in support of removing the speaker.
Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC) on Tuesday became the first member of the House to announce his support for a motion to vacate, The Hill reported. However, Bishop has not committed to introducing the motion itself. And when everyone on stage at a press conference was asked to raise their hand if they supported a motion to vacate, only Bishop did.
“I’m ready to go figure out how to fix this s— sandwich. This can still be fixed but the road gets narrower to fixing it every time,” Bishop said, per NBC News. “And Kevin McCarthy’s been sitting there in leadership.
The announcement came at a press conference for the House Freedom Caucus, which announced as a group that they oppose the debt ceiling deal.
NBC News reported separately that Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO), on a call Monday night with the Freedom Caucus had “floated” a motion to vacate, although he did not do so in public comments.
“The Speaker has said on numerous occasions that the greatest threat to America is our debt,” Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA), the chairman of the Caucus, said at the press conference. “We had time to act. This deal fails completely. And that’s why these members and others will be absolutely opposed to this deal and we will do everything in our power to stop it.”
Perry fell short of declaring his support of a motion to vacate, although he did say that “I’ve focused on defeating this bill, what happens post that and the agreements that we have, we will decide once we’ve determined the disposition of this bill and its finality,” per PoliticsPA.
Does this mean the debt deal will fail in Congress, and that McCarthy will lose his speakership over it? Not necessarily.
The Biden/McCarthy deal, if it passes, will likely lose some votes from both Democrats and Republicans in both houses. If it fails to pass, it would likely force Biden and McCarthy back to the table for more talks on a deal that could get the votes. That’s what happened in September 2008, during the financial crisis, when the first vote to approve TARP was defeated in the House before a second attempt passed. If Biden and McCarthy have to speak again, it will come with an even tighter deadline, with June 5 identified as the date that a default would take place.
As for a possible motion to vacate, doing so would trigger a vote on removing the Speaker. We’re still several steps away from that, and it’s far from clear that there are anywhere close to enough votes to remove McCarthy as speaker. Nor is it clear who would replace him, if he was removed.
Now, if Kevin McCarthy were to be removed, leaving a new speaker to immediately negotiate a debt ceiling deal with the president, with days to spare? All bets are off.
Expertise and Experience:
Stephen Silver is a Senior Editor for 19FortyFive. He is an award-winning journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.
