Will the GOP ever break up with MAGA Republicans?

Posted on November 17, 2023 by Joan McCarter

This week should have proved once and for all to Republicans everywhere that the MAGA minority in Congress is ungovernable and, worse, opposed to having a government at all. New House Speaker Mike Johnson faces the same reality that every recent GOP speaker has faced, but it looks like it might get worse than what even former Speaker Kevin McCarthy dealt with.

Once again, the only way Johnson could get a continuing resolution to keep the government running was with Democratic votes—the same way McCarthy did it (though with a hint more grace and far less drama). And once again, the minority of Republican maniacs who run the show hit back. In McCarthy’s case, the rebellion led to his ouster. But so far, they aren’t threatening that for Johnson. However, they did grind the House to a legislative halt, again, preventing it from passing appropriations bills that they should have loved, larded down as the bills were with the MAGA maniacs’ own poison-pill provisions.

You can lay this situation at McCarthy’s feet. He gave the place away to the maniacs in exchange for holding the gavel for nine months. That included putting three of the most extreme members in the GOP conference—Reps. Chip Roy of Texas, Ralph Norman of South Carolina, and Thomas Massie of Kentucky—on the powerful House Rules Committee. They’re the ones responsible for making sure every extreme amendment from the likes of Andy Biggs, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Lauren Boebert gets a vote on the floor.

Those amendments are why the “moderates” in the GOP joined the hard-liners in shutting down the latest appropriations bill, voting against a procedural rule to advance it.

Rep. Nick LaLota, a Republican from New York, voted against it in protest of having to keep taking disastrous votes on far-right amendments that are doomed to fail. “The amendments are going to fail, the bill is going to fail, it won’t get sent to the Senate, it won’t be signed by the president,” LaLota said.

By the way, that trick of blocking a motion to proceed to a bill hadn’t been used by majority members in the House since 2002, and back then, it was used just once. It’s been deployed several times by Republicans just since June. This is how broken the House is since “regular” Republicans folded and let the small group of extremists run the show.

Speaking of broken, ladies and gentlemen, meet the Senate where a growing MAGA contingent promises to bring some of the House chaos to the upper chamber. From Oklahoma’s brawling Markwayne Mullin to Alabama’s one-man national security threat, Tommy Tuberville, we’re moving far beyond the traditional GOP obstruction with filibusters and into unprecedented territory.

Democrats salvaged something from all this wreckage this week: the continuing resolution that will keep the government operating for the rest of the year. No question, that’s a great thing to have accomplished. But because Democrats did it, the MAGA rampage will get even worse, and it’ll start as soon as Congress returns from its Thanksgiving break.

In other words, getting those appropriations bills done in a few months comes down to Johnson realizing that if he wants to succeed in this job, he’ll have to break the hold the minority nihilists have on the House. That means working with Democrats on everything from determining spending in bills to restructuring the Rules Committee to end the maniacs’ control of it. If the House ceases to function—which we are perilously close to—the legislative branch doesn’t work. The Senate can’t legislate by itself. While we’re talking reform, Senate Republicans have to bow to reality and vote with Democrats to stop Tuberville from kneecapping the nation’s military.

The big problem, as always, is MAGA king Donald Trump. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is more likely to use Trump for potential political gains than to renounce him for the good of the country. Johnson—one of Trump’s lead insurrectionists following the 2020 election—is proving even more willing than McCarthy to grovel to Trump.

Even when Republicans must know it’s against their best interest to spiral down the MAGA toilet, that’s what they’re going to do. That is, unless Johnson has any ambition to remain speaker after 2024. The easiest way for Congress to remain in Republican hands past 2024 is by showing they can govern, which they cannot do unless they get Democrats to hold their hands and show them how.

That’s exactly what Democrats should not do, though, unless they get something significant in return, like an end to bogus impeachment efforts and a say in what legislation comes to the floor. This past week might have been enough for Johnson to grasp the futility of letting the maniacs continue to rule, but I wouldn’t count on it.

Republican infighting escalates: MAGA wing takes aim at House Speaker Mike Johnso

Senate chaos predicts MAGA onslaught in Republican ranks

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Republicans are challenging labor leaders to fights and allegedly physically assaulting one another. Donald Trump says he will abolish reproductive rights entirely and is openly calling for the extermination of his detractors, referring to them as “vermin” on Veterans Day. The Republican Party has emerged from its corruption cocoon as a full-blown fascist movement.

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Impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas failed, no thanks to GOP ‘moderates’

Posted on November 14, 2023 by Joan McCarter

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was not impeached by the House of Representatives Monday—barely. Georgia’s contribution to the debasement of Congress, namely Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, filed the privileged resolution against Mayorkas last week on the charge that he has violated his oath of office by, in part, “allowing the invasion of approximately 10,000,000 illegals across our borders.” (Greene apparently wrote this one up all by herself.)

Eight Republicans voted with Democrats to punt on the resolution, essentially killing it (for now) by referring it to the House Homeland Security Committee. Yes, a mere eight Republicans, despite the fact that there have been no impeachment hearings held about Mayorkas and his job performance. There has been no evidence presented to any committee that he has committed high crimes and misdemeanors. But 201 Republicans—including 17 of the 18 GOP members representing districts that Joe Biden won in 2020—didn’t care about any of that.

The only one of the “Biden 18” to vote against the impeachment was California Rep. John Duarte. Eleven other Republicans, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, did not vote.

Those supposed GOP “moderates,” like Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska, love to bitch about having to cast hard votes for amendments on appropriations bills that will never become law. “So they make us take votes that don’t make sense, right?” Bacon complained just last week, whining about how extreme his party has become.

Meanwhile, he—and the rest of them—lined up with the repugnant Greene on this absolutely bogus impeachment resolution. This is what they endorsed Monday night:

Darrell Issa is right, I am a hardworking member of Congress who puts the American people first. But we all know what Darrell Issa lacks… 🏈🏀⚾️🎾🎱 https://t.co/j4YX9Gc5Fp
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) November 14, 2023

And this:

https://t.co/BKnV2GaR6x pic.twitter.com/V4IMVNW82i
— Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) November 14, 2023

Once more, they proved the conventional wisdom: The GOP’s so-called “moderates” will always cave to the extreme right.

Here's a fix for Biden's 2024 messaging issues: Remind voters how repulsive Trump is

Ignore Speaker Johnson's positions, Republicans say. The important thing is he doesn't shout

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Just one word explains why Democrats had such a massive election night on Tuesday: abortion. On the newest episode of The Downballot, co-hosts David Nir and David Beard recap all the top races through the lens of reproductive rights, which continue to motivate Democrats and even win over a key swath of Republican voters. Nowhere was that more evident than in Ohio, which voted to enshrine the right to an abortion into the state constitution by a double-digit margin, despite countless GOP attempts to derail the effort.

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The top candidates for speaker of the House

Posted on October 23, 2023 by Joan McCarter

Nine Republican men—of course they are all men—have filed to run for speaker of the House, filling the seat Rep. Kevin McCarthy was booted out of 20 days ago. The chaos will continue for at least part of this week as the deeply divided Republican conference tries to work through its issues. There are many, which have been heightened by the scorched-earth campaign Rep. Jim Jordan and his Freedom Caucus pals waged against holdouts, trying to bully them into submission with the predictable result: death threats against the opposition and their families that Jordan and team blew off.

It’s hard to overstate the anger and resentment brewing in the Republican conference at this point. It’s likely to spill into Monday evening’s conference meeting, which is supposed to be a candidate forum in which all nine candidates will make their pitch. This is who’s running: House Majority Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota, House Republican Vice Conference Chairman Mike Johnson of Louisiana, Republican Study Committee Chairman Kevin Hern of Oklahoma, Republican Policy Committee Chairman Gary Palmer of Alabama, Reps. Byron Donalds of Florida, Jack Bergman of Michigan, Austin Scott of Georgia, Dan Meuser of Pennsylvania, and Pete Sessions of Texas.

TOP TIER

Out of that group, Emmer, Johnson, Hern, and Donalds are the most likely contenders; the first three because they’ve had the most experience in policy and working with their colleagues. Donalds, even though he’s been in Congress for less than three years, is the MAGA/Freedom Caucus/Trump choice—the Jordan successor.

Of that group, Emmer is the only one who did not vote to overturn elections results on Jan. 6, 2021. He’s also supported aid to Ukraine and voted for last month’s continuing resolution (CR), which kept the government open. Emmer’s sanity is going to make him—and his backers—a target of the extremists. Some have told Axios reporter Andrew Solender that they don’t intend to go public with their support because they don’t want to be targeted again.

Johnson voted against Ukraine aid and voted against last month’s CR. He’s a Trump ally and, in fact, served on Trump’s defense team in both of his impeachment trials in the Senate. He would likely be acceptable to the large bunch of extremists but will have a problem being from Louisiana. That’s where Majority Leader Steve Scalise is from, and traditionally, members don’t like to see leadership centered in one state.

Hern has been in Congress since 2018 and became chair of the Republican Study Committee this year. He’s the “policy” guy, as much as such a thing exists in the GOP these days. He also voted against the CR and a functioning government and against aid to Ukraine. He flirted with running for speaker in the last round but deferred to Scalise and Jordan.

Donalds is a dyed-in-the-wool MAGA Freedom Caucus Florida Man, opposed to both the CR and aid to Ukraine. He’s an election denier who has repeatedly insisted that President Joe Biden is not a legitimate president. When the Freedom Caucus and Rep. Matt Gaetz wanted to fight McCarthy in the first speaker election, back in January, Donalds was one of the guys they put forward. He’ll likely be the first choice of most of the extremists.

THE ALSO-RANS

Of the second tier of candidates, Sessions is the most experienced, formerly serving as the House Rules Committee chair. He’s a member of both the conservative Republican Study Committee and what serves as moderate in this group, the Republican Main Street Caucus. He could be a dark-horse candidate here.

Among this group, Scott is the only one who did not vote to reject the election results. He’s the guy who decided to mount a challenge to Jordan’s bid for speaker at the last minute. Getting 81 anti-Jordan votes in that surprise bid seemed to make him think he could actually do this. He and the remainder in the second tier are likely to be weeded out pretty quickly.

The plan for Monday evening is for every candidate to give a two-minute speech, followed by 90 minutes of Q&A for the whole group, with one-minute closing remarks from each candidate. The voting in the conference begins Tuesday.

Here’s a cheat sheet for some of the key votes of all the candidates.

Ladies and gentlemen, your cheat sheet to the 9 Republican candidates for Speaker of the House: https://t.co/Fiyc257NpJ pic.twitter.com/3JGeDWRM2n
— Adam Carlson (@admcrlsn) October 22, 2023

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Jordan is trying to bully his way to becoming speaker

Three Biden-district Republicans changed course, voted against Jordan. Too late

Scalise’s bid for speaker on shaky ground

Posted on October 12, 2023 by Joan McCarter

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise didn’t have much of a chance to celebrate Wednesday after he eked out a win to be the Republican nominee for speaker. The votes had barely been counted before the opposition began making itself loudly heard—and in numbers that could deny him the job. That wasn’t what Scalise counted on, of course. He seemed to assume, like former Speaker Kevin McCarthy before him, that once he got the nod, the conference would fall in behind him and he could bulldoze his way to a floor vote. Also, like McCarthy, he seriously underestimated the absolute love of chaos in his party. But unlike McCarthy, who had weeks to lobby support for his bid, Scalise has had days.

Scalise’s narrow victory of 113 votes to Rep. Jim Jordan’s 99 was made even smaller when it became clear that three of his votes came from the congressional delegates from U.S. territories who won’t be allowed to vote in the floor election. Effectively, he’s starting with 110 votes and needs to turn 107 people to his side. Punchbowl News puts the “real hard-core ‘Never Scalise’ vote” at between 20 and 30, ranging from a core group of moderates who are still pissed that McCarthy was forced out, to the very far-right fringes of the party.

Because they are Republicans, some opposition is petty and personal. Like Rep. George Santos of New York, who was hit with the news of 23 more felony counts in the federal indictment against him while the speaker vote was happening. Scalise hasn’t personally reached out to him, Santos tweeted, and so he said that “ANYONE but Scalise and come hell or high water I won’t change my mind.”

Then there’s Freedom Caucus stalwart Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, who is still mad that his big idea for a new rule failed. He pushed a rule requiring that the nominee had to have 217 votes in the GOP conference to move to the floor. It went to a vote and was rejected 135-88, but he blames Scalise and his allies anyway. Thus he’s a “hard no.”

So is Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, who says she just discovered that Scalise “attended a white supremacist conference and also compared himself to David Duke.” Mace remains unperturbed by the allegations that the guy she’s backing, Jordan, turned a blind eye to the sexual abuse of multiple young men while he was a wrestling coach at Ohio State University. She even went on CNN to tell a dumbfounded Jake Tapper that Jordan was the guy to build bridges to Democrats.

On the other hand, some of the people who brought down McCarthy are backing Scalise, including Reps. Matt Rosendale of Montana, Eli Crane of Arizona, Tim Burchett of Tennessee, and yes, Matt Gaetz of Florida. What, if anything, Scalise has promised them we don’t know yet. We do know he told Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida that he was with her on her top priorities: “1. Defunding Jack Smith 2. Impeachment vote for Biden on floor of House 3. Subpoena for Hunter Biden.”

Of course, that Scalise is relying on those people for support shows just how shaky this venture is for him. He’s also not expected to get any help from Donald Trump, which makes Scalise’s MAGA support even more questionable. The people he needs to rely on to help him herd these rattlesnakes all seem to be preoccupied with the fight for their own climb up the leadership ladder.

What happens next, and when it happens, is unclear at the moment. The House convenes in the early afternoon but will probably immediately go into recess. The Republican conference is meeting privately again at 12:15 PM ET. A vote Thursday seems unlikely.

Sign the petition: No to MAGA impeachment. Focus on what matters.

Speaker race preview: ‘Legislative terrorist’ Jordan vs. ‘David Duke without the baggage’ Scalise

Rep. George Santos faces new charges he stole donor IDs, made unauthorized charges to their credit cards

Republican congresswoman gets a reality check while defending Jim Jordan

Former OSU wrestlers: Jim Jordan ‘has to answer for what happened to us’

Posted on October 11, 2023 by Joan McCarter

“Do you really want a guy in that job who chose not to stand up for his guys?” That’s what Ohio State University wrestler Mike Schyck told NBC News about Rep. Jim Jordan, the former assistant coach who allegedly stood by in silence while his charges were being sexually abused by team doctor Richard Strauss.

A group of the former student-athletes is speaking out about Jordan once again, because he was put forward as a viable candidate to be speaker of the House—second in line to the presidency. They think he should be nowhere near the job. It looks as though a slim majority of House Republicans might agree. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise narrowly got the nod from his fellow GOP members Wednesday, ahead of what could be another drawn-out and bruising fight on the floor. Nevertheless, in today’s MAGA-dominated Republican Party, Jordan was able to rise to these heights and be a contender for the job.

That’s why former student-athletes are speaking out.

Jordan’s “hypocrisy is unbelievable,” said Dunyasha Yetts, another former OSU wrestler. “He doesn’t deserve to be House speaker. He still has to answer for what happened to us.” Yetts recounted an incident in which he went to see Strauss for a thumb injury and the doctor tried to pull his pants down. He said he immediately told Jordan and then-head wrestling coach Russ Hellickson about the incident. They then went to confront the doctor. In the years since, Jordan has claimed he had zero knowledge of any abuse.

Another alleged victim, Rocky Ratliff, is now a lawyer representing some of the plaintiffs suing the school. He said Jordan “abandoned his former wrestlers in the Ohio State sexual abuse scandal and cover-up.”

One of the alleged victims, who thinks Jordan is politically qualified for the speaker job, would not endorse him. “My problem with Jimmy is that he has been playing with words instead of supporting us,” the anonymous man told NBC News. “None of us used the words ‘sexual abuse’ when we talked about what Doc Strauss was doing to us, we just knew it was weird and Jimmy knew about it because we talked about it all the time in the locker room, at practices, everywhere.”

Jordan didn’t respond to the allegations directly, but his spokesman Russell Dye issued this statement: “Chairman Jordan never saw or heard of any abuse, and if he had, he would have dealt with it.”

That’s a reflection of Jordan’s lack of character, said Schyck. “He put himself in this position,” he said. “If early on he jumped in on our side and validated what we were saying, what everybody knew about what Dr. Strauss was doing to us, then this wouldn’t be happening. But he decided early on, for reasons I still don’t understand, that he was going to deny knowing anything about this. Now he’s got no choice but to stick to this story that he had no idea what Dr. Strauss was doing, even though it’s a lie.”

This same lack of principles and character made Jordan one of Donald Trump’s most stalwart supporters all the way through the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Jordan was at the center of Trump’s attempted coup, advising Trump by phone that morning. He was one of the loudest proponents of Trump’s Big Lie.

It shouldn’t be a surprise that he’s sticking with his OSU lie, considering that he’s sticking with Trump’s Big Lie and using his power within the House to try to bring down Joe Biden’s presidency.

It’s a reflection of what the GOP has become that Jordan is a serious contender to be second in line to the presidency. Not that ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy or Scalise are that much better: Both of them voted to overturn the 2020 election on the night of Jan. 6, after the Trump mob ransacked the Capitol and threatened their lives.

Liz Cheney goes at Jim Jordan for his role in Jan. 6 insurrection

House Republicans swiftly act to obstruct on Trump’s behalf

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Speaker race: Democrats united, Republicans in disarray

Posted on October 11, 2023 by Joan McCarter

House Democrats and Republicans met privately Tuesday afternoon in their respective conferences. The Democrats emerged united, in a unanimous vote that they “wrapped up in seven minutes.”

Tonight House Democrats unanimously voted to renominate Leader Hakeem Jeffries as Speaker of the House. His vision for a bipartisan governing coalition will lead us out of this Republican-manufactured chaos so we can get back to our work of putting People Over Politics.
— House Democrats (@HouseDemocrats) October 11, 2023

Then there’s the Republicans. The Tuesday meeting was a chance for the two candidates—current Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Rep. Jim Jordan—to make their case to their colleagues ahead of the voting, which will start in private sessions Wednesday. Neither candidate came out of the evening’s meeting with a clear majority or even a definite edge. Jordan has more declared supporters, but as one Republican member, North Dakota Rep. Kelly Armstrong, told an Axios reporter, it’s a secret ballot. “One, people don’t have to tell you who they’re voting for and two, they can lie to you about who they’re voting for.”

Scalise and Jordan both said that they would throw their support to whoever emerged victorious in a bid for some kind of unity, though it took Jordan some time to come right out and say it. The rank and file aren’t necessarily ready to unite, however. “I can’t say that I’ll automatically join whoever pulls out the most of them at first vote, but I might,” Rep. Dan Bishop of North Carolina told The Washington Post.

That might be what former and barely Speaker Kevin McCarthy is counting on. There’s still a core group of people who insist they will only vote for McCarthy. He’s been accused of actively undermining Scalise, according to Politico. “They are literally trying every dirty trick to fuck with Steve,” one Scalise supporter said. “It’s sad.”

McCarthy could be counting on being the only option still standing after a drawn out fight between Scalise and Jordan, but it’s hard to see any of the eight who voted to oust him last week changing their minds about him.

That includes Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado, who might not be behind anyone at this point. He had a key question for Jordan and Scalise Tuesday night: Did Donald Trump win the 2020 election?

That’s a big one for Buck, a hardcore Freedom Caucus member who is not a MAGA enthusiast, and who voted to certify the 2020 election and who has had a problem with McCarthy since Jan. 6, 2021. He confronted McCarthy in a conference meeting before the certification votes and warned him that it was wrong to choose the “politically expedient route” of sticking with Trump over “the good of the party” and upholding the Constitution.

Neither Jordan nor Scalise—who both voted against certifying President Joe Biden’s election—would give a direct answer, and “tried to have it both ways,” according to a member who spoke to Politico. Sounds like Buck might have a hard time finding a candidate in the GOP. He told the Post: “I’m not thrilled with either choice…. I think someone else will come forward, and I don’t know who that is. I’m not backing anybody, but I don’t know if it’s just these two.”

Buck might be the only Republican who is worried about things like the Constitution in this fight, but he isn’t the only one who’s having a hard time finding a candidate to get behind. “No one at this point is even remotely close to a majority,” Rep. Kat Cammack of Florida told the Post. “So I think that we’re not just going to be here for a couple extra days. My money says weeks.”

Sign if you agree: Stop the MAGA circus. Hakeem Jeffries for speaker.

GOP's speaker decision delayed as House Republicans regroup

Rep. McHenry relishes his (limited) power as speaker pro tempore

Wild ride ahead as Matt Gaetz gets his chance to oust McCarthy

Posted on October 3, 2023 by Joan McCarter

UPDATE: Tuesday, Oct 3, 2023 · 3:32:51 PM +00:00 · Joan McCarter

“We are not voting in any way that would help save Speaker McCarthy … Nobody trusts Kevin McCarthy, and why should we?” — House Progressives Chair Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) after the Democratic Caucus meeting pic.twitter.com/QG1jc3Velv
— The Recount (@therecount) October 3, 2023

UPDATE: Tuesday, Oct 3, 2023 · 3:31:29 PM +00:00 · Joan McCarter

All of the reporting this morning from the Democrats’ meeting is of a unified conference that isn’t going to sit this out, and is not going to support McCarthy. The reasons: “McCarthy’s actions on Jan 6, his trip to Mar a Lago, his attempt to discredit the Jan 6 Cmte, his reneging on debt limit deal and his actions this weekend are all the reasons.”

UPDATE: Tuesday, Oct 3, 2023 · 3:27:59 PM +00:00 · Joan McCarter

Rep. Abigail Spanberger, Virginia, is one of the vulnerable Frontline Democrats, and often speaks for them. She’s definitely not going to help McCarthy.

“He’s a man who cannot be trusted. He’s a man who has excused the inexcusable time and time and time again. He is in this circumstance because he was willing to give up and negotiate anything to become speaker. So I think anyone who thinks it might be some sort of strategy for Frontliners to try and help McCarthy is kind of fundamentally misunderstanding the fact that to us, nothing is more important than our principles.’

Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz finally made good on his threats Monday afternoon, quietly filing his motion to oust House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. The rules of Congress say that the issue has to be dealt with within two days, though there are a few ways that can go.

McCarthy was typically, inexplicably confident Tuesday morning going into a closed-door meeting of his whole conference, telling reporters he was ready to have the motion come up Tuesday and following through in the meeting by informing members the vote will happen in the first vote series early Tuesday afternoon.

This is the first time since 1910 that the motion will be considered on the floor. It’s been threatened a few times since but never deployed, in part because it’s hard to pull off. It’s a simple majority vote, and the numbers are everything today—how many of Gaetz’s hard-liner supporters will vote with him, how many members are on the floor at the time, and where the Democrats land.

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House Democrats also met Tuesday morning to decide whether they give McCarty any help on this one. McCarthy reached out to Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries Monday night but would not negotiate for his support. "They haven't asked for anything. I'm not going to provide anything," he said early Tuesday. McCarthy insists that the issue is not about him but about the institution, and that that should be enough for Democrats to help him out. “I think this is a question to the institution itself. I know in the past, the other leaders together believed that this should never be in play.”

In an MSNBC appearance Tuesday morning, Jeffries had no comment beyond saying, "We are in the midst of a Republican civil war and it is undermining the ability of the congress to solve problems on behalf of hardworking taxpayers.” Jeffries might ask for his members to vote—or abstain from voting—as a bloc, or tell them to vote their conscience. If it’s the latter, McCarthy should worry because Democrats have an extensive list of reasons why the man can’t be trusted, from his vote to overturn the 2020 election, to his reneging on the debt ceiling deal he made with President Joe Biden, to his capitulation to hard-liners on Biden’s impeachment. The capper happened Sunday, after Democrats saved his bacon by giving him the votes to avert a government shutdown. McCarthy went on “Face the Nation” and told host Margaret Brennan that Democrats “tried to do everything” to force a shutdown of the federal government.

So how will this go Tuesday afternoon? There are a few possibilities. They could put Gaetz’s motion immediately to a vote. From there, it’s up or down on McCarthy by a simple majority of those present and voting. Either he wins, or he loses. Or there could first be a motion to table Gaetz’s resolution, or to refer it to a committee that will bury it. If the motion to table passes, McCarthy survives. If it fails, they then vote on Gaetz’s motion, and we’re back to the simple majority to save him or boot him. He can afford to lose only four votes if every House member is present and voting.

As of Tuesday morning, Gaetz had three likely supporters: Reps. Bob Good of Virginia, Tim Burchett of Tennessee, and Eli Crane of Arizona. There were a handful known to be leaning toward booting McCarthy: Reps. Matt Rosendale of Montana, Dan Bishop of North Carolina, and Andy Biggs of Arizona.

You can follow along with all the action this afternoon in live coverage at Daily Kos.

Chaos reigns in House as hard-liners plot McCarthy ouster

The Gaetz-McCarthy feud gets even nastier as shutdown looms

Will Democrats save Kevin McCarthy’s job?

Posted on October 2, 2023 by Joan McCarter

The day after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s astonishing capitulation that allowed Democrats to once more save the day and keep the government funded, Rep. Matt Gaetz was in front of the cameras promising that he would move to oust McCarthy this week. It’s not clear how much support the Florida man has among the other hard-liners in the Republican conference, but it could be a dozen or more, according to House conservatives. That means McCarthy’s fate is absolutely in Democrats’ hands. He can survive only if Democrats help him, and as of now, they’re not inclined to do that.

President Joe Biden isn’t going to go out of his way to help, telling reporters that it’s up to House Democratic leadership to decide if they want to bail McCarthy out again. Biden then turned the screws on McCarthy with a direct statement telling McCarthy to step up on funding for Ukraine, which was left out of the stopgap government funding bill.

While the majority of Congress has been steadfast in their support for Ukraine, the bipartisan bill has no funding to continue it. We can't allow this to be interrupted. I expect the Speaker to keep his word and secure the passage of support for Ukraine at this critical moment.
— President Biden (@POTUS) October 1, 2023

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries remains noncommittal. Last week, he told reporters his team hadn’t “given any thought to how to handle a hypothetical motion to vacate, because we are entirely focused on making sure that we avoid this extreme MAGA Republican shutdown.” On Sunday, Minority Whip Katherine Clark sent a letter to all House Democrats, putting them on notice that as soon as Gaetz drops his motion on the floor, there will be a “Caucus wide discussion on how to address the motion to best meet the needs of the American people,” and telling them to keep their schedules flexible so they “may be present for these important votes should they occur.”

It’s likely many Democrats will take their lead from House Speaker-emerita Nancy Pelosi, who has reportedly warned Jeffries and other Democrats against helping McCarthy, saying he can’t be trusted. Her advice has been to make the Republicans figure this out on their own. Democrats will, however, have to do something, even if it’s doing nothing.

Here’s how it works: Once Gaetz makes the motion to vacate, leadership has two days to schedule a vote on it. The motion to vacate is a privileged resolution, which means that it doesn’t have to go through the Rules Committee to be scheduled, and that it has to be considered once it’s put on the floor. There is an option, called the “Question of consideration,” that could be used to kill the vote. Any member can call for it, and if a majority votes to kill Gaetz’s motion, that’s how they’d do it.

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At that point, Democrats would have the option of helping Republicans by voting for the question and killing the motion to vacate, not voting or voting “present,” or voting against the question and with Gaetz. The problem for Republican leadership with this option is that it doesn’t stop Gaetz from coming back again and again with his motion to vacate. Because of that, Republican leadership might just decide to go ahead with the vote on McCarty’s ouster.

So here’s where the potential dealmaking with Democrats comes in, and so far, Democrats are playing it pretty smart. Gaetz has reached out to members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and at least one of them—Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez—says she’d “absolutely” vote for the motion to vacate.

However, she continued, there’s room for negotiation for Democratic help bailing McCarthy out. “I certainly don’t think that we would expect to see that unless there’s a real conversation between the Republican and Democratic caucuses and Republican Democratic leadership about what that would mean, but I don’t think we give up votes for free,” she said.

Another progressive, Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, told CNN that McCarthy has to be held to account for “pushing an extreme agenda and enabling extremists in his party” and therefore, “by refusing to support a motion to vacate, we are endorsing this extremism, and that is something that the residents in my district will not stand for. The American people are tired of the fact that the GOP is incapable of governing.”

That’s leverage—with enough of the progressives saying they’ll help Gaetz, McCarthy will need to negotiate. He’s opened the door on cutting a deal, saying, “I think this is about the institution. I think it's too important.” He’s also suggested that he’d consider changing the rules package to try to keep Gaetz from bringing the motion repeatedly.

Opening up the rules package could mean some significant changes to help the Democrats, including giving them additional seats on the powerful Rules Committee, where the Republicans have an outsized majority. They could argue for rules that allow more power-sharing.

That’s a start, since McCarthy has opened the door. But it’s not sufficient. Democrats should hold out for the maximum they can: funding for Ukraine, adherence to the budget agreement McCarthy and Biden agreed to earlier in the year, and ceasing the ridiculous Biden impeachment.

House Democrats saved the day on Saturday when 209 of them voted to keep the government operating. Just 126 Republicans stepped up to join them. Those competing numbers have to be thrown in McCarthy’s face every chance Democrats’ get—it’s leverage they have to use to the maximum.

Live coverage: The government shutdown clock is ticking

Posted on September 30, 2023 by Joan McCarter

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy blinked Saturday morning, doing an about-face on government funding. He abandoned the hard-right provisions in his last government funding bill and offered a stripped-down version of the Senate’s proposed continuing resolution. The new CR includes 45 days of continued funding, but strips out Ukraine funding.

That all sounds fine, except that McCarthy dropped this bill on House Democrats and told them the vote would be held immediately, and Democrats have found multiple issues in the short bill during a delay they created by asking for the House to adjourn. Democrats continue to object to being jammed by McCarthy, and the House is now delaying a vote, with Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries holding the floor using his “magic minute,” the unlimited debate time afforded to leadership. The Senate was supposed to have started work on its CR at 1 p.m. ET, but is also in a holding pattern, waiting to see what the House does.

As a matter of tactics, Senate and House Democrats should defeat this continuing resolution. McCarthy has already blinked, deciding a government shutdown is more damaging than a vote on his leadership. They should push their advantage.

UPDATE: Saturday, Sep 30, 2023 · 7:00:13 PM +00:00 · Joan McCarter

Democrats just saved McCarthy’s butt, by the way. The vote was 335-91, with 209 Dems and 126 Republicans voting for it, 90 GOP noes. Now comes the fight over McCarthy’s speakership, and Democrats need to use this to get some concessions from him before they help. First, he has abide by the debt ceiling agreement on appropriations and a mechanism to avoid another shutdown fight next year. Second, no more impeachment crap.

UPDATE: Saturday, Sep 30, 2023 · 6:47:44 PM +00:00 · Joan McCarter

The emerging Dem narrative. It’s true as far as it goes, and the defeat of the draconian cuts and racist border policies the GOP pushed yesterday is significant. The Senate could still fight for Ukraine.

MAGA Republicans have surrendered. All extreme right-wing policies have been removed from the House spending bill. The American people have won.
— Hakeem Jeffries (@RepJeffries) September 30, 2023

UPDATE: Saturday, Sep 30, 2023 · 6:43:50 PM +00:00 · Joan McCarter

Smattering of applause on the floor as it hit the 2/3rds threshold of 290. So the question now is whether the Senate will prioritize Ukraine over having the rest of their weekend free, and swallow it. Judging by the response there so far, they’ll vote for their weekend. We’ll see if they have any objections to the other stuff the House stripped out from/snuck into their bill.

UPDATE: Saturday, Sep 30, 2023 · 6:35:03 PM +00:00 · Joan McCarter

And that’s that. This is bad news for Ukraine.

NEWS: Jeffries telling Dems to vote for the CR
— Heather Caygle (@heatherscope) September 30, 2023

UPDATE: Saturday, Sep 30, 2023 · 6:33:32 PM +00:00 · Joan McCarter

McConnell reportedly pushed his conference to hold out for their bill, with Ukraine aid. He was overruled.

UPDATE: Saturday, Sep 30, 2023 · 6:31:15 PM +00:00 · Joan McCarter

The House is voting now on the new funding bill. It needs 2/3rds to pass. Expect the majority of Dems to hold out on voting until they see how many Republicans oppose it.

UPDATE: Saturday, Sep 30, 2023 · 6:25:57 PM +00:00 · Joan McCarter

One hangup here for everyone, a provision regarding member pay that looks like a really sneaky move by the GOP to get a raise.

UPDATE: Saturday, Sep 30, 2023 · 6:23:02 PM +00:00 · Joan McCarter

Senate GOP is now saying they won’t vote for the CR they negotiated, because they want to give McCarthy a chance to get this through. Majority Leader Schumer is reportedly postponing the next procedural vote to see what happens in the House.

UPDATE: Saturday, Sep 30, 2023 · 6:19:01 PM +00:00 · Joan McCarter

Jeffries wrapped, after an impassioned speech. “You dropped this bill at the eleventh hour today and gave the American people minutes to evaluate it. That's unacceptable,” he told Republicans. General debate is now continuing. It’s under suspension of the rules, so it needs 2/3rds to pass. It’s not at all clear right now what the majority of Democrats will do.

Chaos reigns in House as hard-liners plot McCarthy ouster

Posted on September 29, 2023 by Joan McCarter

There can never be too much chaos for Rep. Matt Gaetz and his malignant cohorts. With this weekend’s government shutdown now seeming inevitable, the Florida Republican and some of his unnamed compatriots are plotting to try to oust House Speaker Kevin McCarthy as early as next week, according to The Washington Post.

A shutdown isn’t enough disruption, nor is their trainwreck of an impeachment inquiry inquiry, so these hard-liners want to make the House an even more ridiculously dysfunctional place. There’s a real underpants-gnome vibe to the endeavor, with phase two of the plot—whom they’ll replace McCarthy with—currently a mystery. The only name seriously floated to the Post is Majority Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota, who told the Post, “I fully support Speaker McCarthy. He knows that and I know that. … I have zero interest in palace intrigue. End of discussion.”

The other question is whether they’re capable of pulling it off. The House procedure is called a “motion to vacate,” and it has been voted on only once in American history—and it failed. In 1910, Speaker Joseph Cannon survived the vote, though his leadership was weakened. Later, in 1997, rebels plotting against then-Speaker Newt Gingrich talked about using it, but they never filed the motion. The only other time the motion has been filed was in 2015, when then-Rep. Mark Meadows (yeah, that Mark Meadows) filed it against then-Speaker John Boehner, but it was never deployed. Boehner ultimately resigned.

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A successful motion to vacate is clearly not an easy thing to pull off. Is this the crew that will make history and be the first to succeed? It’s just possible that McCarthy and team are hapless enough that it could happen. But what the hard-liners should worry about are the potential consequences: empowered Democrats.

McCarthy has brushed off any suggestion of getting help from Democrats to save his speakership, and in turn, Democrats aren’t in a hurry to rush to his defense. "I cannot imagine him paying the price that it would take for us to bail him out," Rep. Jared Huffman of California told Axios.

That price would be steep. "We want to get disaster aid out, we want to continue our support for Ukraine, and we want them to end this sham of an impeachment inquiry," Minority Whip Katherine Clark of Massachusetts told Politico last week. "If Kevin McCarthy chooses to ... get back to work for the American people, to do the right thing, we're going to be there to, you know, meet and compromise with him."

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is playing it very cool. He rejected “the notion that any of us would be dealing with inside parlor games when we’re trying to stop the extreme MAGA Republicans,” according to Axios. “I haven’t given it any thought,” he added.

McCarthy needs 217 votes out of his current 221-seat majority to save his speakership. (There are two vacancies in the House.) Presuming Gaetz can count, he won’t bring the motion to vacate unless he’s got four Republican members on his side willing to abandon McCarthy so the ploy can potentially succeed. However, Gaetz can’t and shouldn’t count on Democrats to help him—they can sit this one out by voting “present,” or they can vote to keep McCarthy.

That puts a lot of power into the hands of the 212 Democrats and the “Biden 18”—the freshmen Republicans in districts President Joe Biden won in 2020. If just four of them play their cards right—and cross the aisle on a vote—they could find themselves in a fairly comfortable position with Speaker Hakeem Jeffries. At the very least, they wouldn’t be blamed for the next government shutdown.

It’s a long shot that any of this ends with a Democratic speaker, but the only thing that’s predictable amid the chaos in the House is the unpredictable.

Here’s what the ‘pissing match’ between Gaetz and McCarthy costs

New day, same chaos: House GOP argues with itself in face of shutdown