Kevin McCarthy is nolonger the speaker of United States House of Representatives.He has been ejected after a vote of no confidence.
The vote to vacate was 216-210 with eight Republicans supporting the motion to remove the California lawmaker from the speakership.
No House speaker has ever before been ousted through the passage of a resolution to remove them. A previous vote in 1910 ended with Joseph Cannon remaining in power.
Karine Jean-Pierre White House Press Secretary said that President Joe Biden hopes the House will quickly select a new speaker, saying the “urgent challenges facing our nation will not wait”.
Jean-Pierre added “the American people deserve leadership that puts the issues affecting their lives front and center”.
“Once the House has met their responsibility to elect a speaker, (Biden) looks forward to working together with them and with the senate to address the American peoples’ priorities,” Jean-Pierre said.
Possible Replacements For McCarthy as House speaker
It’s still unclear who will eventually succeed McCarthy – and the now-former speaker could even run again for the position – but here are a few frontrunners:
Steve Scalise: Gaetz, having engineered McCarthy’s overthrow, has said he would support Scalise taking over the role. Scalise is the Number 2 House Republican and has long been favoured to take over as head of the Republican Party in the chamber after McCarthy’s tenure ended.
Tom Emmer: He is a House Republican whip and headed the House Republicans’ campaign arm during the 2022 midterm elections when Republicans recaptured the House majority from Joe Biden’s Democrats.
Jim Jordan: The chair of the House Judiciary Committee and an ally of former President Donald Trump, Jordan was nominated by some Republican rebels to be the speaker during the election to the seat in January. He received 20 votes during one round of voting.
Bryon Donalds: Considered a rising star in the Republican Party, he garnered 20 votes during one of the rounds of voting for the speaker’s race in January.
