The House will select a new speaker next week after Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) successfully booted House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. The motion to vacate was passed, as eight Republicans voted with Democrats to oust McCarthy. It plunged the lower chamber into chaos, with concerns about what will happen next at a time when voters are preferring the GOP to handle issues like crime, immigration, and the economy. The chance of further mayhem was mitigated when McCarthy announced Tuesday evening, hours after the vote, that he would not seek his former leadership post.
As of now, Reps. Steve Scalise (R-LA) and Jim Jordan (R-OH) are the frontrunners. Someone must get 218 quickly and avoid a multi-ballot circus unless the GOP wants to put their tenuous House majority at risk. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) offered a rare comment on the situation in the lower chamber, suggesting that House Republicans remove the motion to vacate to prevent future pandemonium (via Washington Examiner):
McCONNELL says House Republicans should get rid of the motion to vacate, saying it makes the speaker’s job “impossible.”
— Andrew Desiderio (@AndrewDesiderio) October 4, 2023
Rare for him to weigh in on House GOP internal issues
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) urged former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) replacement on Wednesday to eliminate the motion to vacate after the procedural tool was used to force the latter’s historic ouster.
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Senate Republicans were aghast at the news, with even the most conservative members expressing dismay over McCarthy losing the House’s top job.
“I have no advice to give to House Republicans, except one: I hope whoever the next speaker is gets rid of the motion to vacate,” McConnell said at his weekly leadership press conference. “I think it makes the speaker’s job impossible, and the American people expect us to have a functioning government.”
The motion, McConnell reiterated at the end of the press conference, “puts whoever the speaker is a hammerlock of potential dysfunction.”
Look, Mitch, right now, you’re not so hot with the GOP base concerning your views to fund Biden’s Ukraine quagmire forever, so I’d just keep to your side of the Capitol Building on this one.