House Republican “Freedom Caucus” lunatics try to oust Kevin McCarthy over budget deal
The House Republicans running for reelection in toss up districts were already going to force “Speaker” Kevin McCarthy to cave to President Biden on a budget deal. McCarthy was always going to have to go along with them, because they could oust him. But now that the budget deal has happened, we’re getting to that unknown part where the House Republicans from far right districts have to decide whether to oust McCarthy themselves.
Some of these House Republicans are already publicly vowing to take McCarthy down. Dan Bishop is calling for McCarthy’s ouster. Nancy Mace is publicly bashing McCarthy and appears to be hinting at trying to oust him.
Keep in mind that because McCarthy was only installed as Speaker by a one vote margin, and House Republicans only have a five vote majority in total, it would only take a very small number of Republicans to force a vote on whether to remove McCarthy.
Whether or not there are enough votes to actually remove him is another matter. No one in the House Republican caucus seems particularly happy with McCarthy. But they know that if they do oust him, they don’t exactly have another consensus pick lined up. There’s a good chance they’d end up with no Speaker at all. So they might decide not to oust McCarthy solely for that reason. But at this point he’s hanging on by a thread.
Bill Palmer is the publisher of the political news outlet Palmer Report