Western Pa. members of Congress weigh in on potential ouster of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy

Congress could lose its House Speaker on Tuesday afternoon, as the U.S. House could vote this afternoon to vacate its top position.

The effort is led by U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, a hard-line conservative from Florida, who is upset with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., over a recent vote to fund the federal government and many other issues.

Last year, McCarthy struggled to get enough votes to ascend to the speakership. It took several days and several concessions to far-right conservatives in the caucus for McCarthy to secure the necessary votes. Gaetz then said he would file a motion to vacate if McCarthy crossed him.

It’s unclear if McCarthy will be able to survive the vote, with Democrats indicating they will not protect McCarthy and Gaetz only needing to convince a small number of Republicans to join him.

At a news conference earlier Tuesday, McCarthy said he was confident that he would prevail. If he does not, he said he could accept that because he stood by his principles. He defended his support of funding the federal government, despite some Republicans’ opposition to the continuing resolution not including any major spending cuts.

“At the end of the day, if I have to lose my job because of it, so be it,” said McCarthy.

Democrats are signaling they will vote in unison and many are hinting they won’t bail out McCarthy. With Republicans holding a narrow majority, if Democrats vote against McCarthy, then hardline conservatives will only need five members, including Gaetz, to oust McCarthy.

U.S. Rep. Summer Lee, D-Swissvale, said she will not vote to protect McCarthy, saying that the speaker capitulated to far-right members of the Republican Party, who support the Jan. 6 insurrection, criminalizing abortion, banning Black history and cutting Social Security and Medicare.

“If we didn’t stop him, he would have sold out the entire country to keep his little gig as speaker of the chaos caucus,” Lee said in a statement. “Why would I — or any Democrat — vote for a Republican speaker who supports Donald Trump and white supremacists?”

Related

• Rep. Matt Gaetz's motion to oust Speaker Kevin McCarthy throws House into new turmoil
• McCarthy ouster vote ahead as he confronts GOP critics but says he won't cut a deal with Dems

U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio, D-Aspinwall, said he will vote to oust McCarthy. He said sensible Republicans should work with House Democrats to form a bipartisan coalition to run the House.

“Since day one, Republican leadership has meant nothing but chaos, dysfunction and extremism for the House of Representatives and the American people,” Deluzio said. “The good people of Western Pennsylvania sent me to Washington to work for them and to get things done. The extremist Republican majority has made that impossible because they are incapble of governing.”

Western Pennsylvania Republicans U.S. Reps. Mike Kelly, R-Butler, and Guy Reschenthaler, R-Peters, did not immediately return calls. But both have been supportive of McCarthy in the past.

Reschenthaler tweeted Monday in support of McCarthy, calling him an experienced champion of freedom and conservative principles.

“He’s led the fight holding President Biden accountable and getting our nation back on track,” Reschenthaler said.

Reports indicate that some Republicans are trying to work a deal with Democrats to protect McCarthy.

But House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., announced shortly before the scheduled vote that a deal with Republicans has not been reached and said that there wasn’t a willingness from Republicans to broker one.

Jeffries said the House Democratic Leadership will vote yes on the motion to vacate, against McCarthy.

If McCarthy is voted out of the speakership, Republicans will then lead another vote to elect a new speaker.