“I don’t regret standing up for choosing governing over grievance. It is my responsibility, it is my job. I do not regret negotiating, our government is designed to find compromise. I don’t regret my efforts to build coalitions and find solutions. I was raised to solve problems, not to create them.”
On October 4, a day after the decision was made. Speaker of the House of Representatives from California, Kevin McCarthy, spoke about his feelings on the decision. In a 216-210 vote, Republican McCarthy was ousted as Speaker by a combination of Democrats and eight of his republican house members. Matt Gaetz, a hard-right Representative, initiated this decision after news of McCarthy working with the Democrats to pass the Stopgate bill came to light.
Tensions between McCarthy and these select few Republicans in the House have been present since he ran for office in January earlier in the year. Gaetz was the leader of the pushback for McCarthy in office, often insulting him and actively voicing his resistance.
“You’ve had this rumbling from the beginning,” Mr. Charlton, a U.S. history teacher at Wheeler, said. “They’ve gone through all these votes and counts for him to get there, so it was like he was already walking on thin ice when he got the position. It was probably just a matter of time before they called for the removal.”
The reason for this push to remove McCarthy was that Republicans discovered that he had been making deals with the Democrats to prevent the federal government shutdown that was on the horizon. Republicans were adamant about dramatically cutting government spending and completely reforming the government while demanding that McCarthy bring every bill to the floor despite Congress running out of time.
McCarthy, however, didn’t want the shutdown to deny millions of American workers paychecks and halt multiple vital programs for those in need. So he promptly decided to avoid the hard-right demands to keep the government functional, and despite his reasoning, Gaetz took the opportunity to use it against him. Gaetz accused McCarthy of making “secret side deals” with Joe Biden to give Ukraine more money in their war with Russia, despite Ukraine not being included in the stop gate bill that was issued for the crisis.
“I feel like McCarthy was making an effort to try and unify, and try to be moderate, and try to work with the Democrats.” Ms. Gibson, an Economics and Government teacher at Wheeler, said. “It’s concerning that they chose to vote him out because the person that asked for this to happen is pretty far right, not a fan of working together.”
The removal of McCarthy was the first time in U.S. history that a Speaker had been removed from their chair. After the extreme decision, the House was thrown into chaos as they scrambled to try and find a new speaker.
“It’s either going to force the Republicans to unify,” Gibson added on the removal. “Or it will get worse, and nothing will get done.”
Since the removal happened immediately after the possibility of a shutdown was brought to a close, it could lead to another open discussion for shutdown because of the disarray in power and structure.
“This could contribute to the government shutdown that they were talking about happening,” Zoe Kukreja, a senior at Wheeler, said, “So, that would be bad.”
“I think it will reopen the discussions, and that’s the sad part,” Charlton commented on the possibility. “We send politicians to Washington to be about the people’s business, and shutting down the government is not about the people’s business.
After his removal, McCarthy announced he would not run for office again, leaving the speaker role vacant. The House decided to take a week break and start elections for a new speaker on Wednesday, October 18. Jim Jordan, a Republican representative from Ohio, was voted on for the role as the new Speaker. In need of 217 Republican votes, he fell short in the first ballot, only gaining 200 votes, and then in the second, where he had only 199. The House said there will not be a third vote, so the seat remains vacant while the search continues.
“For me, the great person to run the House would be someone who’s about the people’s business,” Charlton commented on the search for a new Speaker. “And is not looking at ‘oh I need to be along these lines’ or ‘oh I need to be along these lines.’ The ultimate agenda is what’s best for the people.
“I would like just to fire everyone and start over again,” Gibson commented. “Maybe put some term limits into Congressional leadership and see what we could do. Maybe some age limits. We need to make some changes or convince young people to start paying more attention to what their leaders are doing.”
Was the removal too extreme? Unnecessary? Possibly because McCarthy was trying to keep the government from shutting down, which would’ve sent the whole country into panic. Even Gaetz’s claim that McCarthy made side deals with Biden was incorrect, and, shockingly, he managed to remove him. The country is slowly falling apart; perhaps this is one of the straws that will weaken the camel’s back.
