Manchin defends McCarthy after ‘personal’ ouster: ‘I’d have been voting for Kevin McCarthy’

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) defended Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) after he was ousted as House speaker, saying he would not have voted to remove McCarthy if he was in the House of Representatives.

Manchin, a centrist, said that the historic vote to fire McCarthy was a “shame” and believes he was removed for personal reasons while speaking on MSNBC’s Morning Joe.

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“This one seemed to be personal,” Manchin said. “Like, that’s all I can say. For some reason, it was personal, and I don’t know all the ins and outs, but people that I know are very rational, very reasonable, centrist, moderates, Democrats, they would have naturally reached over and helped Kevin. There was a purpose and a reason they didn’t do it.”

The West Virginia Democrat also said that while there was “more to it than I know,” he would have overlooked any personal reasons “for the sake of our country” if he were a member of the lower chamber of Congress.

“I can only speak for myself. If I had been a House member, I’d have been voting for Kevin McCarthy,” Manchin said. “Whether I was upset with him about anything personal or not, I would not let that interfere, but there’s more to it than I know, so you’d have to ask them, but I can tell you, this one seemed to be personal, and I can’t tell you the reasons why, but for the sake of our country, we should have overlooked that.”

McCarthy was removed from the top job in a 216-210 vote on Tuesday, with eight Republicans joining all present Democrats to vote to remove the House speaker for the first time in history. The California Republican said he believes Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who brought the motion to remove him, did it for personal reasons.

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Hours after the vote on Tuesday, McCarthy announced he would not seek the speakership again, setting up a battle in the House Republican conference to be his successor. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) have both announced runs for House speaker, with other Republicans in the conference considering taking up the speaker’s gavel.

A candidate forum is scheduled to be held on Oct. 10 for the House GOP, with a House floor vote on the new speaker planned for Oct. 11. As the candidate forum approaches, both Scalise and Jordan have been racking up endorsements from their House colleagues.