[News Figures] Kevin McCarthy, the First Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives to Be Removed in History

8 Hardliners from Democratic and Republican Parties Support Dismissal Resolution
Event Likely to Cause Major Damage to 36-Year Political Career
Close Aide McHenry to Serve as Acting Speaker

Kevin McCarthy, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and a member of the Republican Party, was abruptly removed from his position on the 3rd (local time), becoming the first Speaker in the 234-year history of the U.S. Congress to be ousted. The resolution to remove him, submitted by hardline members of his own party who had been at odds with him since his inauguration, passed the congressional threshold with the support of eight Republican lawmakers, ending his nine-month tenure as Speaker.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

According to the Washington Post (WP) and others, the House held a full session that day and voted on the resolution to remove Speaker McCarthy, passing it with 216 votes in favor and 210 against. The resolution, submitted by Republican hardliner Representative Matt Gaetz in protest against McCarthy’s push for a temporary budget bill the previous day, was approved by Congress. Notably, eight Republican hardliners joined the majority Democratic Party in voting for the resolution.

This incident is expected to inflict significant political damage on McCarthy, who has been in politics for nearly 40 years. After the vote, McCarthy declared that he had no intention of resigning voluntarily and would not run again in the upcoming Speaker election.

Born in 1965, McCarthy entered politics in 1987 as an intern in the office of Representative Bill Thomas while attending California State University. He then worked as a staff member for Thomas for 15 years before being elected to the California State Assembly in 2002, marking the start of his formal political career.

In 2006, when Thomas retired, McCarthy ran for the vacant seat in California’s 22nd congressional district and has held the seat through nine terms to date. He gained attention when elected as the House Majority Leader in 2014 and was re-elected to the same position in 2018, contributing to the midterm election victory last year.

In 2015, McCarthy was considered a leading candidate for the next Speaker of the House, but controversy arose after he stated that the House Select Committee on Benghazi, established under Republican leadership, was effectively targeting then-Democratic presidential candidate and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. This led him to withdraw from the race.

During the 2016 Republican presidential primaries, McCarthy strongly supported then-candidate Donald Trump and was even regarded as a 'bodyguard' figure at one point. However, following the 2020 Capitol riot, he began distancing himself from Trump and the Republican hardliners. As a result, during the Speaker election earlier this year, he faced opposition from hardliners within his party and was only able to secure the position after 15 rounds of voting.

As a Speaker from the minority Republican Party, McCarthy tended to pursue dialogue and compromise rather than confrontation with the majority Democratic Party and the White House. This trait became a major point of attack from the hardliners within his party.

In particular, the issue that led to his removal?the resolution of the federal government default (debt default) crisis?highlighted this tendency. McCarthy brokered a deal to resolve the standoff between the White House and Republicans over raising the federal debt ceiling, which was recently passed. Republican hardliners demanded significant budget cuts and the reinstatement of border funding during the 2024 fiscal year budget review, pushing aggressively up to the brink of a government shutdown. However, McCarthy arranged a temporary budget bill, which was ultimately passed in a dramatic fashion.

Following McCarthy’s removal, his close ally Representative Patrick McHenry (Republican, North Carolina) has taken over as acting Speaker. Known as a policy expert and a member of the House Financial Services Committee, McHenry played a key role in persuading Republican hardliners during McCarthy’s rise to the Speakership and acted as a mediator between Republicans and Democrats during the passage of the temporary budget bill.

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