Kevin McCarthy’s Ironic Downfall

Plus: What the former speaker’s ouster means for GOP fundraising.

By and
100
Rep. Kevin McCarthy holds a press conference after being ousted as speaker of the House on October 3, 2023. (Photo by Elizabeth Frantz for The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Happy Wednesday! Before Mike gets back from vacation, we’re taking quick action to nominate him as the next speaker of the House.

Up to Speed

  • California Republican Kevin McCarthy was deposed as House speaker Tuesday afternoon in a 216-210 vote, with eight Republicans crossing the aisle to vote alongside every Democrat. It was the first time in U.S. history a speaker has been booted through a “motion to vacate” vote. Despite initial comments from scattered House Democrats suggesting they might help McCarthy protect the gavel, Democrats decided Tuesday morning they would vote unanimously to remove him, citing his lack of principle and repeated concessions to his party’s hard-right flank. Although many Republicans vowed to continue supporting him, the former speaker said Tuesday night he would not stand again for the job.
  • In the wake of the vote, Republican leadership retaliated against Democrats’ support for the measure with several small symbolic moves, evicting several former Democratic leaders, including Reps. Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer, from their Capitol hideaway offices just off the House floor. The bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus seems to be on life support: Republican members, enraged at their Democratic colleagues’ unwillingness to bail McCarthy out, are reportedly threatening to leave the group en masse.
  • Gov. Glenn Youngkin raised $7.45 million in the third quarter for his effort to lead a Republican takeover of the Virginia General Assembly in next month’s legislative elections, his political team tells The Dispatch. The GOP is defending a thin majority in the state House of Representatives and needs to flip four Democratic-held seats to capture the Virginia Senate. “Gov. Youngkin is all in on making Virginia the best place to live, work, and raise a family,” his adviser, Dave Rexrode, says in a statement. Youngkin has been raising the money from wealthy GOP donors who hope a strong showing in the Old Dominion’s off-year elections will encourage the governor to mount a late bid for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
  • Rep. Elissa Slotkin, a Democrat giving up her House seat to run for Senate in Michigan, raised $3 million in the third quarter and has grown her war chest to $5 million, The Messenger reports. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, the incumbent Democrat, is retiring in 2024. The Republican primary is expected to be spirited.
  • No Labels, the well-funded nonpartisan group making tentative plans to field a third-party unity presidential ticket, is asking the Democratic Party to stop working against its effort to get on the ballot in states that allow for it, the Associated Press reports. “We urge you to tell your state and national leadership that you will not participate in actions that threaten the very principles of liberty and freedom that are the bedrock of our democracy,” No Labels writes in an open letter to thousands of Democratic state and county leaders across the country.
  • With inflation vexing voters and polls showing Republicans hold their biggest advantage over Democrats on the economy in a generation, President Joe Biden’s campaign is out with a new television advertisement touting legislation he signed to lower the price of insulin for seniors and “investing in American-made clean energy to lower power costs for families.” The spot is running in Phoenix, the main media market in the key battleground state of Arizona.

McCarthy Out

In the end, Kevin McCarthy met his destiny on the road he took to avoid it.

To become speaker of a razor-thin and fractious Republican House majority, McCarthy—always more of an institutionalist and relationships guy than an ideological firebrand—made himself a supplicant to his party’s hard-right flank. He sacrificed much of the institutional power of the office to meet the demands of the House Freedom Caucus and gave its members an outsize presence on congressional committees. After initially denouncing the Capitol riot on January 6, he famously traveled to Mar-a-Lago to mend fences with Donald Trump. And he regularly bowed to the wishes of conference malcontents on House strategy—most notably by opening an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden last month.

It wasn’t enough. The “motion to vacate” mechanism McCarthy had resurrected in his bid to win Freedom Caucus support was the mechanism Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida used to remove him. Trump stood by silently until the defenestration was complete. And Democrats cited McCarthy’s repeated concessions to his party’s wooliest members as part of their rationale for declining to protect him from Gaetz’s revolt.   

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  1. Trichwages

    “The only candidate for Speaker I am currently supporting,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene posted on Twitter Tuesday night, “is President Donald J. Trump.”

    There is just one problem MTG. GOP House Rule 26, which requires leadership to step aside if indicted for a felony with a punishment of more than two years.

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    Mandy B.

    Vivek: As the woman said in the David Bowie song: 'oh, baby, just you shut your mouth'.

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    1. Tdavis

      Nice mine, but it was Bowie’s voice.

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        Mandy B.

        Yes, his voice, her comment : )

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    Bill B

    McCarthy is out and either Scalise, Jordan or Hern and possibly Trump are up to bat. That's an improvement?

    Gosh, who's next after they're gone? Greene, Gosar, Gaetz, Santos, Ted Bundy? 😂 I can just see Democrats excluding themselves from supporting a moderate Republican in lieu of Ted Bundy while pontificating on how Republicans have to clean their own house. Of course Democrats could tempt Republicans with AOC or Pressley... that'll work.

    Play stupid games, get a Dark Passenger with a gavel.

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    1. Besht2003

      Republicans have agency. McCarthy had agency. I don't see the Democratic leadership or the caucus ever having a rule-to-vacate triggered by only one vote or "the Squad" having the muscle to vacate Pelosi's chair. Personally I think Trump as a Speaker would be pretty cool TV. But then I think the "stupid games" are the indictment side-shows in a two-tier justice system that weaponizes law enforcement against poor folk and permits the wealthy to enjoy all the benefits of our presumed innocent Constitutional protections.

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        Bill B

        I doubt any Democrats would agree to such a rule. You had to be McCarthy to cave on that one. The Democratic vote should have been to side-line the crazies.

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        1. Besht2003

          My impression is that a new rule for vacating the Speaker's chair was proposed to McCarthy but couldn't be worked out. So the Dems walked away. BingAI chat suggests: "Some Democratic members reportedly suggested to Republican Representative Kevin McCarthy that they might oppose or vote “present” if he agreed to modify the rule regarding the motion to vacate. The proposed change would prevent the process from repeating in the future.
          However, despite these discussions, an agreement on altering the rule could not be reached. Consequently, when the motion to vacate was put forward, it received support from both Democrats and Republicans, leading to Kevin McCarthy’s removal as Speaker." That said Jonah Goldberg agrees with you and suggests Kevin could have been protected in a secret vote. Joe Scarborough agrees at least for the Democratic members of the "Problem Solvers Caucus"--by standing aside he agrees they didn't solve the problem they were faced with.

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            Bill B

            That's very interesting. Do you have a link on that?

            It suggests that McCarthy is dumber than I thought. Given how dumb I thought he was that's quite an achievement.

            Oh well, in that case, to quote the Japanese, "shikata ga nai"("nothing can be done about it").

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    2. Merle R Walker

      I’ve been trying to convince myself, unsuccessfully, that there was some rational purpose or reasonable objective for the democrats in the house to side with the crazies and oust Kevin McCarthy. A ringing endorsement of the Speaker was not required; only allowing the three (or more) souls who thought maybe McCarthy had some redeeming qualities to vote their conscience. No doubt the democrats could cite a long list of legitimate grievances in justification. But the prudent course of action when your opponent is self-destructing is to get out of the way; not to provide the last little push.

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        Bill B

        As Goldberg suggests it would have been a measure of protection for the institution to disallow McCarthy's ouster by these folks . The problem with getting out of the way or providing that last little push is that your opponent is wearing a suicide vest and he's going to take out not only himself but you and the building you're in.

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        1. Merle R Walker

          I wrote before I read the excellent analysis in Boiling Frogs, which rendered my comments superfluous.

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        Wj

        McCarthy allied with the radicals at every turn. He was unfit for the job. I think the party-line D vote was justifiable on those terms alone. Whatever comes next, the GOP owns.

        D's have done the people a service by not papering over the R dysfunction, and by putting it on full display for all to see.

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    1. Besht2003

      I agree. And if McCarthy had survived he would have flipped on whatever agreements he made to the Dems and the Gang of Eight would still be pulling the strings.

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  5. Mirabelle

    Without the Democratic fundraising totals to compare to, the GOP totals are rather meaningless.

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    Mattjabour

    "Republican leadership retaliated against Democrats’ support for the measure with several small symbolic moves, evicting several former Democratic leaders, including Reps. Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer, from their Capitol hideaway offices just off the House floor."

    While she was in California.

    For Dianne Feinstein's funeral.

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    J. Eric

    I used to follow politics because it was interesting, and I felt a sense of civic duty to be an informed voter. Now, despite finding almost all the characters repugnant, and having reached the pinnacle of possible disgust, I believe it’s finally become entertaining. Pretty sure that’s not a good thing

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    1. Tdavis

      Saul Alinsky: “If you push a negative hard enough, it will push through and become a positive.”

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    Katie H

    In case you live in VA 5 and you are tired of Bob Good playing games and trying to be a Matt Gaetz wannabe, here is his office phone number to call and complain - (202) 225-4711 . PS they aren’t answering the phone today, so leave a message.

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    Seth

    Republicans in the Problem Solvers Caucus absolutely need to walk out. While this debacle is the fault of Republicans, this Democrat obsession with "saving democracy" rings hollower by the day. The Problem Solvers Caucus is about cutting through the BS and finding compromise to keep the country functioning. Democrats in that caucus revealed their true motives, they want to empower the caucus crazy and reap the benefits.

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      PJ

      No big loss in the current climate as far as I am concerned. Burn it down Republicans, see where that gets you.

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    3. Mirabelle

      The Democrats are not preventing the House Republicans from becoming a functional conference.

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        Seth

        Yes they are, all 208 of them joined the likes of Gaetz in support of the disfunction. McCarthy, at great risk, teamed up with Democrats to keep the government open for 45 more days. They rewarded his civic mindedness by handing the nutjob caucus his head on a platter.

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        1. Smula131

          NOT true. The Democrats noted McCarthy's dissembling on Sunday TV and his constant disrespect for them, and the fact that he NEVER spoke to them about the motion to vacate and his abrogation of teh debt-ceiling deal. So they backed off, because, as my wife often notes, Republicans often vote for or do stupid crap and KNOW that Democrats will bail them out (see social programs, DACA, reproduction rights, SNAP et al). Recall, too, that Biden did some speeches calling out Repubs. who voted against the infrastucture bill but were touting the funds they'd 'brought back to the district.' So they want the Dems. help? Then stop being a group that can't/won't function and govern, and end the posturing. Bring in more to the Problem Solvers. Eight people did this. Unbelievable.

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            Seth

            My original argument was and remains directed at Democrats in the Problem Solvers Caucus. Those Democrats eagerly supported McCarthy's CR to keep the government funded but didn't return the favor. And 8 people did not do this, 216 did. The Democrats who voted have agency, they did not have to go along with this.

            I agree, it is unbelieve - unbelievable that a group that touts bipartisanship ran to their ideological corners for short term partisan gain. Afterall, the Problem Solvers Caucus released this statement over the weekend concerning the CR:

            "The Bipartisan Keep America Open Act is a bipartisan, common-sense solution that provides a concrete option for avoiding a government shutdown...We encourage House and Senate Leadership, as well as Representatives on both sides of the aisle, to review this bill and consider it as a compromise that prioritizes federal employees and our citizens over partisan politics."

            A couple days later, Democrats in the Caucus placed partisan politics over citizens by handing Gaetz and crew a victory.

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    4. NM

      I think you are correct. As an independent, I believe the democrats will pay for this. I have yet to hear any democrats in my circle who think they did the right thing.

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  10. Old reader

    "If you listen to fools...
    ...THE MOB RULES!"

    -Ronnie James Dio

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