McCarthy allies deny existence of Ukraine ‘back deal’
October 02, 2023 03:42 PM
Close allies of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) are denying accusations that GOP leadership made a “secret deal” to secure Democratic support on the stopgap measure used to avoid a government shutdown.
Reps. Garret Graves (R-LA) and Patrick McHenry (R-NC), key negotiators of the temporary spending deal, rejected allegations from Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) that the speaker made an agreement with House Democrats in exchange for their support on the continuing resolution passed on Saturday.
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“No. No, zero,” Graves said.
“As a matter of fact, the last time the speaker spoke with the president, we think, was the debt ceiling,” McHenry added.
“Yeah, so completely false,” Graves added.
Gaetz’s accusations come after House Democrats released a statement that they “expect” the speaker to advance a bill that would provide additional aid to Ukraine — prompting the Florida Republican to accuse McCarthy of making a “secret” deal without the knowledge of other GOP leaders.
In response, Gaetz announced Sunday morning that he plans to file a motion to vacate against McCarthy, following through with weeks of threats to oust the speaker if he passed a continuing resolution to fund the government temporarily — especially through a deal that garnered the support of House Democrats.
McCarthy has vehemently denied accusations of any separate spending deal, telling reporters he’s “not worried about” those efforts.
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“They elected me to be speaker, so I made a decision. I thought it was best to keep the government open,” he said. “There was no guarantee Democrats would vote for it. … But at times like this, I need to make decisions.”
If Gaetz files the motion this week, party leaders will have 48 hours to bring the motion to the floor for a vote. It’s expected that McCarthy will counter the move with a motion to table, effectively killing the ouster. It’s not clear when a vote would be held on the motion.