The House stripped Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) of his gavel on Tuesday, with eight Republicans joining every Democrat present in the 116 to 110 vote to vacate the speaker's chair.
The motion to oust McCarthy came from Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), one of the handful of hard-right Republicans who had tormented McCarthy throughout his historically short speakership. The successful toppling of the speaker was "a move without precedent that left the chamber without a leader and plunged it into chaos," The New York Times reported.
Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), a close McCarthy ally, was elevated to speaker pro tempore to run the House in a caretaker capacity until a new speaker is elected. He adjourned the House until next week, when potential leaders will make their case to the House GOP caucus. McCarthy said he's out, and he had no obvious successor willing or able to unite the fractious caucus.
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"Unfortunately, 4% of our conference can join all the Democrats and dictate who could be the Republican speaker in this House," McCarthy told reporters after the vote, per The Wall Street Journal. "I will not run for speaker again. I'll have the conference pick somebody else." McCarthy needed four days and 15 ballots to win the speakership in the first place, and it's not clear he would have the votes to earn it back.
McCarthy "never really held the office of speaker in anything like the historic meaning of that job": able to inspire fear or reward loyalty, John F. Harris wrote at Politico. "At the start, his speakership was effectively an optical illusion. At the end, it was an exercise in self-abasement." If it's any consolation for McCarthy, "he has plenty of company," he added. "For a quarter-century, every Republican to ascend to the speakership has descended from it with his standing diminished," from Newt Gingrich to Paul Ryan.
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