Rachel Huss, Staff Writer

On October 3, 2023, Kevin McCarthy was ousted from his role as Speaker of the House. This is an act in government that has never been performed before, leaving a lot of people in, and outside, of the government wondering what’s next. Matthew Green, a politics professor at Catholic University, told CBS News, “It’s uncharted territory because we’ve never done that in the history of the United States”. The motion to vacate McCarthy came right after an agreement to push the deadline of a government shutdown to November 17, 2023. 

Image sourced from: Google Images Image Referenced from: Slate.com, by Tom Williams/CQ/Roll Call Inc. via Getty Images

Many are questioning, who is going to take his place? Well, in January, after McCarthy’s exhausting 15 polling sessions, he is required to create a list of who can do so in a situation like this. Representative Patrick McHenry of North Carolina is currently the pro tempore. While McHenry does technically have the power of Speaker of the House, it is figured that not much is going to happen without a permanent speaker elected.

McCarthy has stated that he is not rerunning for speaker. Jim Jordan and Steve Scalise have both announced they are going to be running. Representative Tom McClintock stated, “We can expect week after week of fruitless ballots while no other business can be conducted”, in response to this. 

The common question is, “What did McCarthy do wrong for him to be removed from his position?” There are several different reasons why, but many revolve around the Republican Party believing that McCarthy was siding and/or “going along” with the Democratic Party. For example, McCarthy helped broker a deal with Democrats to avoid a government shutdown. Representative Matt Gaetz has also accused McCarthy of working with President Biden, in secret,  without Republicans, to put together a deal to aid Ukraine. Finally, the Republican, and even Democratic Party, have a hard time trusting McCarthy. After the January 6th insurrection, McCarthy was opposing Trump, but when asked about it later, he sided with him, leaving several confused. Additionally, it concerned the other House members when it took a course of 4 days and 15 ballots in order to elect McCarthy as Speaker of the House in January. It made them question what kind of person they were electing and where his true intentions lied.

Source referenced/used: Quinn, Melissa (CBS News)