anything – other than staying on as speaker,” said Republican Representative Bob Good.
Representative Nancy Mace told reporters she voted to remove McCarthy as speaker because he broke promises to her on improving access to birth control and supporting a bill she wrote on rape kits.
“I’ve made deals with Kevin McCarthy, with the speaker, that he has not kept to help women in this country,” Mace said. “We have done nothing for them.”
McCarthy’s supporters, including some of the chamber’s most vocal conservatives, said McCarthy had successfully limited spending and advanced other conservative priorities even though Democrats control the White House and the Senate.
“Think long and hard before you plunge us into chaos, because that’s where we’re headed,” said Republican Representative Tom Cole.
NO DEMOCRATIC SUPPORT
Democrats said they viewed McCarthy as untrustworthy after he broke a May agreement on spending with Biden.
“Let them wallow in their pigsty of incompetence,” Representative Pramila Jayapal told reporters before the vote.
Gaetz was one of more than a dozen Republicans who repeatedly voted against McCarthy’s bid for speaker in January. McCarthy ultimately secured the gavel after 15 rounds of voting over four days. To win the job, McCarthy agreed to rules that made it easier to challenge his leadership.
McCarthy supporters have said Gaetz was motivated by a hunger for publicity, a chance to win higher office or resentment over an ongoing ethics probe into possible sexual misconduct and illicit drug use.
Gaetz has denied wrongdoing and said he is not motivated by a dislike of McCarthy.
“This isn’t a critique of the individual – it’s a critique of the job. The job hasn’t been done,” he said.
Source: Reuters