NewsRescue
On Tuesday, the US House of Representatives voted 216 to 210 to remove California Republican Kevin McCarthy as House Speaker. McCarthy has faced relentless hostility from the right throughout his brief term for yielding with Democrats on government spending and aid to Ukraine.
On Monday, Florida Republican Matt Gaetz presented a motion to remove McCarthy, two days after McCarthy rallied GOP senators to pass a package funding the US government through November 17. Gaetz and a group of extreme conservatives opposed any attempt to integrate financing for several federal agencies into a single package, and Gaetz threatened to remove McCarthy if the bill succeeded.
McCarthy’s removal was made possible by a January compromise reached between the California Republican Party and Gaetz’s ‘Freedom Caucus’ allies, in which the hardliners agreed to back his bid for speaker in exchange for the ability to remove him from office if they lost confidence in his leadership.
Despite the fact that McCarthy removed military help for the Ukrainian army from the financing package, Gaetz accused McCarthy of making “a secret side-deal” with President Joe Biden, stating on Monday that McCarthy had communicated details of the apparent pact with Republican legislators.
Republicans averted a government shutdown by agreeing to a last-minute 45-day stopgap budget bill on Saturday night.