McCarthy won’t strike deal with Democrats to save speakership

While Kevin McCarthy‘s (R-CA) speakership may be in the hands of Democrats after Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) filed a resolution to vacate his seat on Monday, the House speaker said he would not “provide anything” to Democrats to secure his position.

On Tuesday morning, McCarthy discussed his future as speaker after obtaining Democratic support to avoid a government shutdown this weekend, angering hard-line Republicans.

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“They haven’t asked for anything. I’m not gonna provide anything,” McCarty said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” when asked what the Democrats have asked for in exchange for their support to keep his post.

McCarthy added Democrats would “decide whatever they’re going to do. And we will live with whatever happens.”

Gaetz introduced a motion to vacate, a procedural tool introduced by any member of the House to bring a vote to the floor, to remove McCarthy. Multiple Republicans have voiced their support for the effort to oust McCarthy, including Reps. Tim Burchett (R-TN), Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Bob Good (R-VA), and Eli Crane (R-AZ), with a number of GOP members on the fence.

Burchett said he was still “praying” about his decision but that “if it was right now, I would vote to oust him” during an appearance on CNN.

Multiple Democratic lawmakers have indicated they would be willing to support McCarthy keeping his seat, but their votes may come with a price.

Speaking on MSNBC on Sunday prior to the introduction of Gaetz’s privileged resolution, Rep. Wiley Nickel (D-NC) said he would be open to the idea of making a deal to rescue McCarthy.

“We’re going to all look to our leader, Hakeem Jeffries, to make sure that we have a fair deal,” Nickel said. “But I’m somebody, certainly, who could be open to making that kind of vote if there’s a good deal that gets the things done that we’ve got to do for my constituents.”

While McCarthy said he has yet to ask what Democrats want in order to survive the attempted ousting, Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME) encouraged the speaker to initiate the conversation.

“If Kevin McCarthy hasn’t bothered to ask me or other Democrats for support, then why would we be putting much time into talking about this?” Golden said, per Axios.

Rep. Dan Kildee (D-MI) echoed Golden’s statement, saying that until there is “a conversation happening, there’s no reason to even pursue it.”

Democrats changed the motion to vacate rule in 2019 after taking back the House majority, allowing a motion to vacate to be brought up “only if offered at the direction of a party conference or caucus.” Gaetz and other Republicans made a deal with McCarthy in his bid to become speaker of the House, reversing the Democrats’ rule change, ensuring only one member is needed to file a resolution.

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“Matt Gaetz had planned to do this from the very beginning. He never voted for me. He’s won the challenge,” McCarthy said. “He’s the one that wanted to have this rule. He’s the one that told the conference that he would never use it, but he was gonna use it regardless what happened. He’s got personal things in his life that he has challenges with.”

Gaetz’s resolution to eject McCarthy from speakership could come to a vote as early as noon on Tuesday.