IT’S HAPPENING: Rep. Matt Gaetz Files To VACATE House Speaker Kevin McCarthy Here Are The Details

Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida has officially filed a motion to vacate House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

According to the House Rules the  “motion to vacate is the House’s procedure to remove its speaker. The chamber’s current rules allow any one member.”

Gaetz motion to vacate McCarthy comes after Gaetz claimed McCarthy did a back door deal with Democrats regarding a future spending measure for Ukraine.

Watch the moment he did it here:

BREAKING: Rep. Matt Gaetz has officially filed the Motion to Vacate the Chair against Speaker Kevin McCarthy. pic.twitter.com/eszu0WBRjm

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) October 2, 2023

BREAKING: REP. MATT GAETZ HAS FILED THE MOTION TO VACATE: "DECLARING THE OFFICE OF THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES VACANT." pic.twitter.com/1hwQU4yMYl

— Insider Paper (@TheInsiderPaper) October 2, 2023

Per NBC News:

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., the Donald Trump ally and conservative bomb-thrower who has been a nagging thorn in leadership’s side, filed a resolution on Monday to force a vote to overthrow his political nemesis, Kevin McCarthy, as speaker of the House.

The House must now vote on whether to keep McCarthy on as speaker, but that vote does not need to happen immediately.

During the past two weeks, Gaetz had issued a specific warning to McCarthy, saying that he would try to oust the speaker if he brought a short-term government funding bill to the floor that passed with help from Democrats.

True to his word, Gaetz made the motion to vacate on Monday, just three days after McCarthy put a so-called “clean” continuing resolution or CR on the floor to avert a government shutdown, passing it with 209 Democratic votes and 125 Republican votes.

It was absolutely quiet as Gaetz spoke on the House floor Monday evening announcing the motion. When he finished after about a minute, there was no reaction from the Democrats or Republicans gathered as he walked away up the aisle.

Here’s what led to Gaetz filing a motion to vacate McCarthy:

What was the secret side deal that @SpeakerMcCarthy made with Joe Biden on Ukraine?

Members of the Republican Party might vote differently on a motion to vacate if they heard the answer to that question.

Stay tuned. pic.twitter.com/oUXEvI9vMG

— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) October 2, 2023

Here’s what The Washington Post:

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) introduced a resolution Monday evening to remove Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) from his seat, triggering an expected intraparty clash and setting up a showdown for the House to decide whether to depose McCarthy likely within 48 hours.

Gaetz and a handful of hard-right Republicans have repeatedly threatened to go after McCarthy’s speakership if he relied on Democratic votes to pass any spending legislation, which happened Saturday after McCarthy could not get a majority of Republicans to support various proposals to fund the government with only GOP votes. Using a motion to vacate, a single person can force the House to consider removing the speaker. McCarthy agreed to lowering the threshold for bringing the motion to win over enough support to become speaker in January.

“It is going to be difficult for my Republican friends to keep calling President Biden feeble while he continues to take Speaker McCarthy’s lunch money,” Gaetz said. “Members of the Republican Party might vote differently on a motion to vacate if they heard what the speaker had to share with us about his secret side deal with Joe Biden on Ukraine. I’ll be listening. Stay tuned.”