The House is expected to begin deliberation of vacating House Speaker Kevin McCarthy from the chair as the result of a motion from Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz.
Watch live at the stream below for the Tuesday afternoon drama.
Full Video – U.S. House of Representatives (Oct. 3)
Here’s a full 4 hours of Tuesday’s proceedings which include the removal of Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House.
According to ABC News, the vote may start around 1:30 pm ET but there are several hurdles to pass:
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said he will bring Rep. Matt Gaetz’s motion to oust him as speaker up for a vote Tuesday.
“I am going to bring up the motion to vacate today during the first series and move through this,” McCarthy told reporters after meeting behind closed doors with the Republican conference.
The House has first votes at approximately 1:30 p.m. ET.
“If I counted how many times someone wanted to knock me out, I would’ve been gone a long time ago,” McCarthy added.
The threshold is low for McCarthy to stay as Speaker with just five votes as the deciding factor:
“At the end of the day, if you throw a speaker out that has 99% of their conference that kept government open and paid the troops, I think we’re in a really bad place for how we’re going to run Congress,” McCarthy told reporters.
At least five Republicans have signaled they want McCarthy out, and if they did vote against him, McCarthy would need Democrats to step in to save him. McCarthy said Tuesday he wasn’t expecting Democrats to back him up.
“If five Republicans go with Democrats, then I’m out,” McCarthy said.
There’s no telling exactly how this plays out, but here are a few possible scenarios:
there are a few scenarios here, via me and @bresreports
1) McCarthy wins. Seems unlikely right now.
2) McCarthy loses on the floor. But tries to grind it out with several more votes — a repeat of Jan.
3) McCarthy loses and leaves. Scramble for leadership. Scalise, Emmer,…— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) October 3, 2023
For the moment, it seems like option 2 or 3 may be the most likely but anything can happen. It’s possible Democrats could bail out McCarthy but that seems unlikely at the moment.
Stay tuned for the fireworks.
This is a developing story and this post may be updated throughout the afternoon.
