Kevin McCarthy Removed as Speaker of the US House of Representatives, as Right Wing Republicans Vote With Democrats

Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy has been removed from his position, after a motion from Matt Gaetz (r) Florida. Gaetz accused McCarthy of being too soft on Democrats.

Gaetz blasting members of Congress for being owned by "lobbyists and special interests" right before McCarthy was ousted.

"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."

Republican presidential candidate Mike Pence says he's "deeply disappointed" in Republicans after Speaker Kevin McCarthy was voted out of the job Tuesday.

A Bakersfield Republican, McCarthy was the Republican nominee for speaker in January 2023, but failed to win the speakership until the 15th ballot. As speaker, after a standoff between the McCarthy-led House Republican conference and the Biden administration, McCarthy and the Biden administration negotiated to resolve the 2023 debt-ceiling crisis and prevent what would have been a first-ever national default. To resolve the crisis, the parties negotiated the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, which passed with bipartisan support in Congress before Biden signed it into law.

Following a vote to remove McCarthy as speaker on October 3, 2023, he was ousted from his position, making his tenure the third shortest speaker tenure in U.S. history, and the first speaker to be removed from the role during a legislative term.