‘Keep doing it’: McCarthy fires back at Matt Gaetz after the congressman said he will file a motion to oust him this week
- “I intend to file a motion to resign against Speaker McCarthy this week,” Gaetz said on CNN Sunday morning
- “Everyone agrees that no one trusts Kevin McCarthy,” Gaetz continued
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy urged Rep. Matt Gaetz to “move the matter forward” after the Florida Republican said he would introduce the motion to oust him this week.
“I’ll survive,” McCarthy said on ABC’s Sunday morning news. ‘Bring it on. Let’s get this over with.’
“I intend to file a motion to resign Speaker McCarthy this week,” Gaetz said on CNN Sunday morning. “I think we need to rip the Band-Aid off. I think we need to move forward with new leadership that can be trustworthy.”
The Florida Republican has long said that McCarthy would file the proposal if he introduced a “clean” continuing resolution (CR) to the House.
During the frantic 15-ballot speaker vote, McCarthy agreed to a single member’s resignation request, meaning a member of Congress can force a vote in the House to oust him as speaker.
McCarthy has accused Gaetz of pursuing a personal vendetta against him because the Florida Republican is under investigation by the Ethics Commission.
“This is personal with Matt,” McCarthy said Sunday. ‘[Gaetz] is more interested in securing television interviews than doing anything. He wanted to bring us to a standstill.’
“I intend to file a motion to resign against Speaker McCarthy this week,” Gaetz said on CNN Sunday morning. “I think we need to rip the Band-Aid off. I think we need to move forward with new leadership that can be trustworthy.”
Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz said he will file a motion to remove Speaker Kevin McCarthy next week, shortly after the House passed a spending bill that narrowly avoided a government shutdown
To be removed from office, Gaetz would need 218 votes. Most Republicans would likely vote no on the measure, meaning many of those votes would have to come from Democrats.
“I’m tired of owning Kevin McCarthy,” Gaetz said. The speaker met with Gaetz in recent weeks to try to find a path forward on spending that the right flank could support.
“I don’t own it anymore because it doesn’t tell the truth,” Gaetz said.
He predicted his own proposal would fail because some Democrats would vote to keep McCarthy in the speaker’s chair.
“Kevin McCarthy can only be Speaker of the House at the end of next week if Democrats save him. Now they probably will.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., told CNN on Sunday she would “absolutely” vote to vacate the presidency.
And Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., appeared open to supporting the resignation request on Fox News Sunday morning.
“I don’t know at the moment. “I really need to think about it,” he said. “There are a lot of trust issues in my chamber right now.”
After trying to wrangle Republican votes for a party-line CR that would have included spending cuts and border policy but never made it through the Senate, McCarthy finally relented and submitted a bipartisan CR to the House on Saturday, hours before it expired the deadline for closure.
The bill extends government funding for 2023 at the level set by Democrats in the last Congress for six weeks, giving both chambers more time to develop a longer-term spending plan.
It includes disaster relief, but no new aid for Ukraine.
However, Gaetz accused McCarthy of making a “secret deal” with Democrats to later vote on Ukraine funding.
A statement from House Democratic leadership said they “expect” McCarthy to advance a Ukraine funding bill – but it’s not clear whether the speaker has agreed to that.
“When the House returns, we expect that Speaker McCarthy will introduce a bill to the House to support Ukraine, consistent with his commitment to ensuring that Vladimir Putin, Russia and authoritarianism are defeated.” “We must follow Ukraine Stand by the people until victory is achieved.”
Senate leaders said they expect to introduce a Ukraine bill “in the coming weeks,” and President Biden also said he expects Congress to approve more funding.
“I fully expect the speaker to maintain his commitment to the Ukrainian people and ensure the delivery of the support needed to help Ukraine at this critical moment,” Biden said.