In a historical moment for American history, Republican Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, was voted out of his position. This is the first time this has ever happened within the House of Representatives. On Oct. 3, in a vote between all House of Representatives, the votes came out 216-210.  mostly split by political party, there were eight Republican representatives who decided to vote to vacate the chair, this small group was led by the Floridian representative Matt Gaetz. 

Although with how often votes such as this come into question regarding most of our past presidents, this has never been something done successfully within the House. Within the history of the presidency, although three have previously been impeached, none of them were ever kicked out of office. In a way that is similar to what has happened to Rep. McCarthy, who though voted out of the speaker position, is still a Californian representative. 

Republicans took control of the House recently, as of this past January, with a slight majority and with McCarthy being appointed to the position of Speaker, following the end of Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s run as Speaker. The Speaker’s job is to maintain control and preside over all matters that come in and out of the House. For bills to be passed, they must be voted upon by both Senate and House committees, and the House presents a wider range of people. 

Despite winning the Speaker then, McCarthy received a lot of pushback from his party, which was also led by Rep. Gaetz. One of the main issues these Republican representatives worried about was where government spending was going. A continuing resolution was put in place regarding these issues with the government on the verge of a shutdown. Two days before being ousted, McCarthy had worked toward passing a few bills, however, he relied on the continuing resolution to keep the shutdown from happening. This would lead to Gaetz and seven more pulling back their support from the Honorable speaker. 

In a conference after the vote, Gaetz told reporters, “The one thing everybody has in common is that nobody trusts Kevin McCarthy,” Gaetz continues, “Kevin McCarthy has made multiple contradictory promises, and when they all came due, he lost votes of people who maybe don’t even ideologically agree with me on everything.” 

As of now, Patrick McHenry is the current pro tempore as the chair is still vacated. He was appointed to pro tempore by McCarthy in the wake of if he could not be present at any point in time. This has been an established office since 2001, however, just like McCarthy, who is the first speaker to ever be voted out, McHenry is the first pro tempore to actually act in the role. 

Jim Jordan has attempted numerous times so far to accumulate votes to take control of the speaker position, but all have been unsuccessful as of late. Mike Johnson was appointed as the new Speaker of the House on Oct. 25. As of right now his top priority is to ensure our safety while we grasp the concept of the Israeli-Hammas War    

For More information concerning the Speaker of the House vacancy, go to: 

–https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/kevin-mccarthy-ousted-as-house-speaker-in-dramatic-vote  or

– https://www.cbsnews.com/news/why-oust-mccarthy-matt-gaetz-remove-speaker-of-the-house/  

– https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/house-speaker-vote-10-20-23/index.html  

-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlLvTCTnDXM