Rep. Matt Gaetz offered a motion on Monday to remove Kevin McCarthy as the Speaker of the House.
Gaetz, a frequent critic of McCarthy, has been pushing to remove McCarthy as Speaker for weeks since negotiations on a spending bill began and McCarthy did not offer deep spending cuts as Gaetz and other hardliners in the Republican conference had hoped.
As part of a deal McCarthy struck with the hardliners to become speaker, it requires any one member of the House to call for a new speaker election.
Gaetz’s effort to remove McCarthy comes days after he worked with Democrats to pass a “clean” continuing resolution to avoid a government shutdown over the weekend.
A floor vote to oust McCarthy would require a majority, 218, vote to succeed.
CNN noted that McCarthy is at risk of losing more than five members of his conference so if he is survive a vote to remove him, he would need the help of some Democrats.
Even though some Democrats have already said they will not help McCarthy, the speaker suggested to CNN that he is still open to cutting a deal with Democrats to survive Gaetz’s vote.
