Kevin McCarthy has been removed from the office of Speaker of the House.
McCarthy is the first Speaker to be vacated from the chair in U.S. history.
Yesterday evening, Florida Representative Matt Gaetz introduced a motion declaring the office of Speaker of the House vacant. The House adopted the resolution on Tuesday and proceeded in debate.
Kentucky Representative Thomas Massie, who previously co-authored and co-sponsored a motion to vacate former Speaker of the House John Boehner in 2015, warned against removing McCarthy as Speaker. “This chamber has been run better, more conservatively, and more transparently under Mr. McCarthy than any other Speaker that I have served under,” Massie said. The Kentucky representative, who supported McCarthy's bid for Speaker, referenced concessions made during January’s historically contested vote noting “there was never a promise for an outcome.” “There was never a promise that you could force Joe Biden to sign something," he continued. "This is a referendum on this institution."
"If you vacate the Speaker ... this institution will fail," he concluded.
Efforts to vacate Boehner did not prove successful as Boehner opted to resign from Congress. Massie also opposed former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan's bid for Speaker after Boehner's resignation.
Republicans in favor of keeping McCarthy as Speaker referred to efforts to oust him as "chaos," to which Gaetz said the national debt was chaotic.
"I think that facing a $2.2 trillion annual deficit is chaos," he continued. "I think that not passing single subject spending bills is chaos."
"I think the fact that we have been governed in this country since the mid-90s by continuing resolution and omnibus is chaos," Gaetz said, referring to Newt Gingrich-era Congressional Republicans. "The way to liberate ourselves from that is a series of reforms to this body that I would hope would outlast Speaker McCarthy's time, would outlast my time here, and would outlast either of our majorities."
Later in the House debate, Gaetz criticized fellow lawmakers accepting funds from lobbyists and special interest groups.
"I take no lecture on asking patriotic Americans to weigh in and contribute to this fight, from those who would grovel and bend knee for the lobbyists and special interests who own our leadership ... who have hollowed out this town and have borrowed against the future of our future generations," he said.
"I'll be happy to fund my political operation through the work of hardworking Americans ... and you all [can] keep showing up at the lobbyist's fundraisers and see how that goes for you," Gaetz added.
