House Speaker Kevin McCarthy narrowly avoided a major setback on Saturday afternoon, with Congress agreeing to a 45-day spending plan and dodging a government shutdown in the process.
The new package was voted through after weeks of Republican infighting, largely over President Joe Biden’s $24 billion request for funding for Ukraine. A small but significant group of Republicans refused to budge. McCarthy was left in a sticky situation, given the Democrat-led Senate would almost certainly oppose concessions to the pro-Trump Republican rebels.
“We’re going to do our job,” McCarthy said before the House vote, which his party won 335-91 thanks to Democratic support. “We’re going to be adults in the room. And we’re going to keep government open.”
However, his love-in with the opposition is likely to hurt him, and it could cost him his speakership.
Kevin McCarthy Faces The Gaetz Of Hell
Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz has been a prominent critic of McCarthy since the latter’s election as speaker in January. The lack of unity within the GOP prompted 15 separate ballots for the speakership – something which had not happened for 100 years. Gaetz was one of the six holdouts who never voted for McCarthy, opting to vote for former president Donald Trump instead on more than one occasion.
Cooperation with the opposition was a red line for Gaetz, who for weeks publicly threatened to introduce a “motion to vacate” against the Speaker. As part of the concessions in January to secure McCarthy’s election, only one Representative is required to bring such a motion to the House, something Gaetz vowed to bring this week during an interview with CNN’s State of the Union.
“Speaker McCarthy made an agreement with House conservatives in January, and since then he’s been in brazen, repeated material breach of that agreement,” Gaetz said on the program. “This agreement that he made with Democrats to really blow past a lot of the spending guardrails we set up is a last straw.”
“I do intend to file a motion to vacate against Speaker McCarthy this week. I think we need to rip off the Band-Aid. I think we need to move on with new leadership that can be trustworthy,” Gaetz added.
It followed an argumentative day for a deeply divided GOP. On Saturday, following the passing of the stopgap spending plan, McCarthy said: “If somebody wants to make a motion against me, bring it. There has to be an adult in the room. I am going to govern with what’s best for this country.”
Despite his bullish rhetoric, McCarthy’s political future is in murky waters. In a vote along party lines, McCarthy would lose if just six Republicans voted against him, meaning he is likely to require Democratic support once again. He’s proven his willingness to cooperate with them with the stopgap measure. Then again, however, the vote came in the same month McCarthy announced an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, a move even some Republicans are skeptical over.
Shay Bottomley is a British journalist based in Canada. He has written for the Western Standard, Maidenhead Advertiser, Slough Express, Windsor Express, Berkshire Live and Southend Echo, and has covered notable events including the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
