Show Notes: Vacate

McCarthy – What Happened?

House makes history, removes McCarthy as Speaker

The House on Tuesday voted to remove Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) as Speaker, a never-before-seen historic vote that leaves the lower chamber of Congress in chaos.

The mutiny, led by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), came days after McCarthy averted a government shutdown by putting a stopgap measure on the floor that garnered Democratic support — a move that infuriated hardline Republicans

McCarthy had this to say:
“Unfortunately, 4 percent of our conference can join all the Democrats and dictate who can be the Republican Speaker in this House,” McCarthy said in a press conference. “I don’t think that room is good for the institution, but apparently I’m the only one. I believe I can continue to fight, maybe in a different manner. I will not run for Speaker again. I’ll have the conference pick somebody else.”

Why?

https://nypost.com/2023/01/07/freedom-caucus-earns-major-concessions-from-kevin-mccarthy/

McCarthy was not favored as the Speaker among Republicans.  Gaetz led a group which demanded several criteria that would guide McCarthy’s tenure as leader of the House.  Those concessions included:

• A promise for guaranteed votes on pet issues, like a balanced budget amendment, and term limits, a Texas border plan, and an end to all remaining coronavirus mandates and funding.
• A new committee to investigate the alleged weaponization of the FBI against its political foes. The committee would be modeled on the Church Committee, which investigated US intelligence agencies in 1975. It would have a budget comparable to the recently disbanded Jan. 6 Committee.
• More single-subject bills to allow members to vote on specific, narrow issues instead of thousand-page pork barrel behemoths.
• A 72-hour window for members to read any new bill before it can be voted on.
• A promise to refuse any increase in the debt ceiling in the next federal budget agreement.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/02/politics/joe-biden-kevin-mccarthy-ukraine-funding/index.html

According to Gaetz, Biden’s statement that McCarthy and he had struck a deal was one of the main reasons for the vote to vacate. 

President Joe Biden appeared to suggest over the weekend that Democrats had reached a new deal with embattled House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Ukraine aid – a major omission from a funding bill that managed to avert a government shutdown.

“We just made one about Ukraine. So, we’ll find out,” Biden said when a reporter asked whether he would trust McCarthy when the “next deal comes around.”

What Would Rush Limbaugh Say?

Character matters; leadership descends from character.