Republican lawmaker says he would support expelling Republicans who voted to remove McCarthy

Rep. David Joyce (R-OH) claimed he would support a hypothetical vote to remove the eight conservative lawmakers who voted to oust former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) from the House GOP conference.

The House voted to remove McCarthy as its leader on Tuesday after Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) forced a vote on a motion for McCarthy to vacate the speaker’s chair. Gaetz’s motion came after he accused the former speaker of making a side deal with Democrats to avoid a government shutdown over the weekend.

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“If it was up to me, I’d vote for it,” Joyce told CNN’s Inside Politics on Wednesday when asked how he would vote on the theoretical effort. “It’s a waste of time having conversations with these people, and I think we need to start working and, going forward, as a unified group.”

The eight Republicans include Gaetz and Reps. Nancy Mace (R-SC), Andy Biggs (R-AZ.), Ken Buck (R-CO), Tim Burchett (R-TN), Eli Crane (R-AZ), Bob Good (R-VA), and Matt Rosendale (R-MT).

Joyce said he supported the House’s decision to have a short recess for the remainder of the week so the members could process the stunning change in House leadership. The House will return next week to elect a new leader, and Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) is serving temporarily as speaker pro tempore.

The vote came after Republicans in the House spent months discussing funding for the upcoming fiscal year without reaching an agreement ahead of Sunday’s Oct. 1 deadline. The failure to secure a deal would have led to a government shutdown, which experts warned would have had dire consequences on the country’s economy.

“I don’t see how they can really be part of a conference when … they come on the inside, listen to what’s going on, and go outside and lob bombs in the middle,” Joyce said of the eight conservatives.

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McCarthy managed to secure a bipartisan deal on Saturday in the form of a continuing resolution that included funding for disaster relief and did not include funds for Ukraine, but the resolution only staved off the deadline for another 45 days.

Some Republicans have already thrown their hats in the ring to replace McCarthy, including House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA).