Former House speaker Kevin McCarthy announces he is leaving Congress

Table Of Content

• Votes cast by members
• House minority leader
• Law that ended single-family zoning is struck down for five Southern California cities
• Fresh headaches for the GOP
• Post-speakership and resignation from Congress
• Column: Kevin McCarthy ‘won’ the House speakership. Now the country will pay the price
• Removal of Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House

There are more questions about how Mr. Rosendale and Mr. Crane may behave in the next round. Mr. Rosendale has signaled there are rules changes that could win him over, although it’s not clear what’s left to give him to appease him. Mr. Trump’s call into the chamber came on the two-year anniversary of the riot by his supporters to block congressional certification of Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s win over Mr. Trump. Even by the heated standards of the tensions that flared among House Republicans during their four-day push to elect a speaker, what happened on the House floor around 11 p.m.

Votes cast by members

As the voting dragged on, it became clear that Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida, who has emerged as Mr. McCarthy’s chief adversary, would become the deciding vote. And when Mr. Gaetz voted “present,” depriving Mr. McCarthy of the majority support he needed, the California Republican blanched, stood up from his seat and walked across the House floor to speak to Mr. Gaetz himself. Talking with reporters, he gamely brushed off the notion that his historic and humiliating slog to election — the most protracted such contest since 1859 — foretold any troubles ahead for him in governing with an unruly and narrow majority.

House minority leader

She started at the Los Angeles Times in 1998, previously covered multiple presidential, state and local races, and completed a Knight-Wallace fellowship at the University of Michigan in 2019. Huntington Beach Mayor Tony Strickland, who recalled entertaining and hosting poker nights when he shared a Sacramento house with McCarthy and Doug LeMalfa when the trio were in the state Legislature in the early 2010s, said he was proud of McCarthy and not surprised that he was successful. “He just thought we would be stronger if we went through it,” McCarthy said to hundreds of delegates and guests at a California Republican Party luncheon, his first speech to the state party since winning the post. "Kevin served the American people and his constituents in California’s Central Valley with honor for nearly two decades," Johnson said, accompanied by a photo of the two.

Law that ended single-family zoning is struck down for five Southern California cities

Kevin McCarthy has been ousted as speaker of the House. Here's what happens next. - CBS News

Kevin McCarthy has been ousted as speaker of the House. Here's what happens next..

Posted: Thu, 05 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

In an exclusive, wide-ranging interview with CNN ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, then-House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy outlined his plans for power. "I had more debate this week in Congress — more meaningful debate — more intermingling," Burchett told CNN's Jim Acosta Saturday, saying he was chatting with everyone from the prominent progressive lawmakers known as The Squad to former Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Unable to overcome the opposition from a band of progressive Republicans, supporters of Mr. Gillett kept pushing the House into adjournment to allow back-room talks about how to resolve the stalemate, another tactic being employed this time around as the vote tallies remain inconclusive.

Fresh headaches for the GOP

Two colleagues had spoken up to say they would join Greene in such a vote, giving her enough to defeat the speaker if all the chamber's Democrats voted to do the same. That's what the Democrats did when a motion to vacate the chair ousted the last Republican speaker, Kevin McCarthy, last fall. Just such a "motion to vacate the chair" was filed against Johnson in March by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga. But Greene has yet to make the motion "privileged," which under the rules would necessitate a vote within two days. The dayslong floor fight that preceded his elevation to the House’s top job foreshadowed a stormy tenure, at a time when former President Donald Trump remained the de facto leader of the party and deep divisions within the GOP raised serious questions about the party’s ability to govern.

In 2016, Clark joined then-Georgia Rep. John Lewis and others in staging a sit-in on the House floor to protest the lack of votes on gun control legislation. Under pressure to step aside when there appeared to be no chance that he could clinch the speaker’s gavel, he hung on anyway. Late on Friday night, just as it appeared that Mr. McCarthy was finally going to win the speaker’s gavel that had eluded him for so long, it was suddenly yanked away from him at the last minute, in a highly charged moment on the House floor when his few remaining adversaries refused to bow.

Column: Kevin McCarthy ‘won’ the House speakership. Now the country will pay the price

The 118th version of the Senate did the same this week, convening for a celebratory induction of new members and the swearing in of re-elected senators on Tuesday, then quickly fleeing the capital for three weeks to allow the House to occupy the political stage alone. Two Republicans who were absent for personal reasons from votes earlier in the day, Ken Buck of Colorado and Wesley Hunt of Texas, were expected to be back in time for the vote. That would mean Mr. McCarthy needs just two more in his column, and potentially just one if two or more of his opponents do not vote or vote present. Still, a large contingent of the crowd hung on, with a mixed but visible reaction to Representative Lauren Boebert, who had been a hard holdout, voting “present.” Some booed, and one yelled “sellout!

Rep.-elect Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., greets Rep.-elect Chip Roy, R-Texas, in the House Chamber during the fourth day of elections for Speaker of the House. McCarthy needed a majority of all members voting to win, which can fluctuate depending on who shows up. Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., is congratulated after winning the 15th vote in the House chamber as the House enters the fifth day trying to elect a speaker and convene the 118th Congress in Washington, early Saturday.

Pats on the back and smiles were exchanged, and many turned their attention away from the TVs. As the vote-casting began, a few people packed their bags, closed out their tabs and left. Mr. Trump called Mr. Gaetz, according to two people briefed on the call who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly. CNN reported that Mr. Trump also called Representative Andy Biggs, who switched from voting against Mr. McCarthy to voting “present” on the 15th round. At the same time, Mr. Gaetz had reportedly sought a subcommittee chairmanship in the House Armed Services Committee. The prolonged election prompted tension and uncertainty in the Capitol, where lawmakers in both parties had grown impatient and bored awaiting the outcome of a high-stakes struggle that seemed at once monumental and absurd.

They prefer to protest, shut down the government and risk the GOP majority if Washington isn’t entirely overhauled. This stubborn adherence to ideological purity is causing the hard-liners to lose leverage in a House where the GOP has just a two-vote majority. Their intransigence means that Johnson — though he risks his job by doing so — has continued to turn to Democrats to pass high-priority legislation to keep the government funded and send foreign aid to U.S. allies such as Ukraine and Israel.

In Congress, he maneuvered through his party’s hierarchy before being elected speaker in January. Republicans would not have their five-seat majority in Congress without these two wins, plus three other pickups in California in 2020, McCarthy said, as he called for the reelection of state party Chairwoman Jessica Millan Patterson during Sunday’s internal party elections. Former Rep. Devin Nunes, who left Congress to lead Trump’s social media company, was supposed to speak Friday night but canceled because of weather problems. Two members of Congress spoke in his place, and three more spoke Saturday night, including newly elected Rep. John Duarte of Modesto and Rep. Michelle Steel of Seal Beach, who beat back a challenge in a tight district that includes swaths of Los Angeles and Orange counties. And after he averted a government shutdown by passing a short-term funding bill backed by Democrats and the White House, conservatives moved against him, making him the first speaker in history to be removed through a motion to vacate. “I may have lost this vote today, but as I walk out of this chamber I feel fortunate to have served,” McCarthy said at a press conference at the Capitol, alternating between upbeat assessment of his speakership and angry score-settling of those who ousted him.