I couldn’t care less regarding how Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Hakeem Jefferies (D-NY) worked together. They supposedly had a professional and production working relationship, though sometimes marked by severe disagreement. Thanks to a motion to vacate filed by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), McCarthy no longer has the gavel. Eight Republicans voted with the Democrats to remove McCarthy.
New Jeffries statement on McCarthy. pic.twitter.com/eUgLPAe8Pz
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) October 4, 2023
Jeffries' statement regarding McCarthy's ouster is riddled with sentimental fluff, with the customary well-wishes send-off. It's odd reading this statement from the House Democrat leader who helped plunge the dagger into the heart of the former House speaker. A person with whom you had warm words in your remarks, which some could view as insincere. But there was a ramp-up to Jeffries ordering his members to support McCarthy’s removal, even if it meant siding with Gaetz, who is a MAGA Republican, a political tribe that’s anathema to Democrats. Granted, it's an inadvertent alliance here. Supposedly, McCarthy’s remarks about how Democrats tried to shut the government down is what led to their refusal to bail him out (via NYT):
The leader of the House Democrats instructed his caucus to vote to remove Speaker Kevin McCarthy after a party meeting on Tuesday morning became a bitter venting session in which Democrats aired their disdain for the top Republican.
Hours before a vote in which Mr. McCarthy would almost certainly need their support to survive, there was little sign that any Democrat — even the most moderate — wanted to save him, according to lawmakers who emerged from the closed-door gathering.
Democrats watched a video clip of an appearance Mr. McCarthy made on television on Sunday — the morning after Democrats helped him push through legislation to avert a government shutdown — in which he blamed them for trying to prompt a shutdown.
The minority leader, Representative Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat of New York, waited until after many members had spoken to issue his marching orders to the caucus: that they should vote against any procedural motion brought to the House floor that would delay the removal of Mr. McCarthy.
[…]
Democrats, for the most part, view Mr. McCarthy as a lackey for former President Donald J. Trump, and someone who has opened up a groundless impeachment inquiry into President Biden in order to appease the far-right members. They don’t trust him and regard him as someone who has made so many different promises to so many different people that his word is meaningless.
“They need to work this out,” Representative Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut said as she left the Democrats’ meeting. “This is not for us to get involved.”
Because of Republicans’ tiny majority and the size of the right-wing band of rebels pushing to remove Mr. McCarthy, he would most likely need at least some Democrats to support him or refrain from voting to survive.
Representative Mark Takano, a progressive from California, said that not one member in the room rose to make the case for voting “present” on the matter, which would lower the threshold for Mr. McCarthy to win a majority and stay in his post.
It was a video clip that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Please. Sell that elsewhere because you never offer a hand when your opponent is in a bad fix. Jeffries and McCarthy might have found ways to work together, but they’re still leaders of opposing parties. As the saying goes, and I think James Carville said this: when your opponent is drowning, throw him an Anvil, not a life vest. Democrats have no vested interest in helping Republicans, especially McCarthy, ahead of an election year. For all his faults, McCarthy raised much money for the GOP in the 2022 midterms. While not a massive majority, he’s partially why the GOP captured some ground instead of nothing on that rather disappointing midterm election night.
If the roles had been reversed, no Republican would have voiced support to help hypothetical Speaker Hakeem Jeffries. The Democrats had two minutes of hate against their “Goldstein,” Mr. McCarthy, and then received orders to kill his speakership. It’s that simple. Why? Because he’s a Republican, and the Democrats knew the mayhem that would ensue if he were to fall. The 2024 elections are already here on the Hill. And yes, McCarthy is right; Democrats did try to adjourn on the day a new spending bill to keep the government open was due:
WOW: Democrats just tried to adjourn the House of Representatives and go home — with just hours to go until they shut down the government.
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) September 30, 2023
Democrats have zero interest in paying our troops, securing our border, and ending inflationary spending. pic.twitter.com/UoK0UKN3Ih
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