KEVIN MCCARTHY OUSTED AS US HOUSE SPEAKER IN UNPRECEDENTED VOTE

Wed 04 October 2023:

Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has been ousted by the US House of Representatives as a result of internal strife and continuous opposition from the party’s right flank.

The House voted to remove its leader for the first time in US history on Tuesday evening when it removed McCarthy from his position by a margin of 216-210.

The move came after party’s infighting almost led to government shutdown last week. It was Matt Gaetz, a far-right Republican and Trump loyalist, who pushed the House to topple McCarthy as speaker. McCarthy later told the media that he will not again run for the speaker and will “continue to fight, but [maybe] in a different manner.”

“Speaker McCarthy has failed to take a stand where it matters,” far-right Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz, who launched the effort to remove McCarthy, said in a social media post before the vote. “So if he won’t, I will.”

The unprecedented vote underscores growing turmoil in the Republican Party, also known as the GOP, with its hard-right faction sparring with McCarthy on several occasions since he first became the speaker in January. There is no clear choice within the party to replace him.

In the vote, eight Republicans broke with the speaker, sinking his chances of securing the majority needed to keep his job. Democrats, who have expressed frustration with McCarthy over what they see as his efforts to appeal to the Republican’s hard right, refused to vote in his favour.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said President Joe Biden hoped the House would quickly select a new speaker, saying the “urgent challenges facing our nation will not wait”.