Republican Gaetz files motion to impeach House Speaker McCarthy | Abroad

Gaetz is one of the hardliners within the Republican Party who are dissatisfied with the deal that McCarthy made with the Democrats on Saturday to prevent a shutdown. The group of conservatives wants to force more tough government cuts and believes that McCarthy has given in too much to the wishes of the Democrats.

“It is becoming increasingly clear who the Speaker of the House of Representatives works for and that is not the Republican Conference,” Gaetz said in a speech hours before introducing the resolution.

That is why, according to Gaetz, it would be good to appoint someone else as speaker of the House now. “We have a lot of people in Congress who I think would be very qualified to be president.” We have to regain confidence,” he said on Monday. He also said he had spoken to former President Donald Trump about the plan.

Gaetz was also the one who voted against McCarthy’s nomination as House speaker more than a dozen times in January. The Republicans won a majority in the House in the midterm elections and normally the largest party chooses the group leader as chairman in one voting round, as a formality. This time it took fifteen rounds of voting to convince the most conservative Republicans.

It therefore comes as no surprise that Gaetz now wants to push the chairman aside. McCarthy himself also indicated on Saturday that he realized he was putting his office at risk.

It is not certain whether the motion to impeach McCarthy has a chance of success. Democrats have not yet indicated whether they will vote out the House speaker. They could possibly support him in exchange for concessions. It is also unclear how many supporters Gaetz has within his own party.

Because it is not clear who should take over from McCarthy, there is a threat of political chaos in the House if the impeachment really goes ahead. It has never happened before in the United States that a Speaker of the House of Representatives has been removed.