Kevin McCarthy ousted as US House Speaker by Republican hardliners in unprecedented vote

Kevin McCarthy was ousted from his role as the Speaker of the US House of Representatives on Tuesday (Oct 3) by Republican hardliners. For the first time in its 234-year history, the House backed a resolution "to vacate the office of the Speaker" with a 216-210 vote, setting the stage for an unprecedented contest to replace McCarthy a year before the presidential election.

McCarthy, 58, sparked anger among the Republican hardliners last weekend when he worked with Democrats to pass a stopgap funding measure to avert a government shutdown.

Who led McCarthy's ouster?

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The call for his ouster was led by Republican lawmaker Matt Gaetz who entered his resolution from the House floor on Monday "declaring the office of Speaker of the House of Representatives to be vacant."

"Chaos is somebody who we cannot trust with their word. The one thing that the White House, House Democrats, and many of us on the conservative side of the Republican caucus would argue is that the thing we have in common- Kevin McCarthy said something to all of us at one point or another that he didn't really mean and never intended to live up to," Gaetz said during the vote on Tuesday.

Following the chamber passing a last-minute measure on Saturday to extend funding, Gaetz said he would move to oust McCarthy from the House Speaker's position. "The only way Kevin McCarthy is speaker of the House at the end of this coming week is if Democrats bail him out," he told CNN on Sunday.

McCarthy has described himself as an "optimist," but there has been no placating the uncompromising right-wing of the Republican party.

Simply to secure the speakership in January took him a record 15 rounds of voting to win and he finally got over the line only after making concessions to a bloc of around 20 far-right Republicans.

One of these concessions was a rule change that made it possible for just one disgruntled member to call a vote for a new speaker of the House.

Republicans to choose new Speaker

Republicans will now gather at 6:30 pm (2230 GMT) to discuss putting up a candidate for a vote to be the new Speaker. However, McCarthysaid that he would not run for Speaker again, adding he would have the conference pick somebody else. "I believe I can continue to fight, maybe in a different manner. I will not run for speaker again; I’ll have the conference pick somebody else," McCarthy, 58, told reporters.

US President Joe Biden, meanwhile, urged the US House of Representatives to swiftly choose a new Speaker. In a statement, the White House said, "Because the urgent challenges facing our nation will not wait, he hopes the House will quickly elect a speaker."

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