What's The Matter With Kevin? Why McCarthy Was Ousted From House Speaker And Why Few Seem All That Sad About It

Yesterday, the United States House of Representatives voted for the first time in history to remove the Speaker of the House from his position, ending the brief, tumultuous reign of Kevin McCarthy and leaving American's confused as to what happens next.

That being said, this situation is, to many Americans, apparently very funny.

An outpouring of memes followed news that McCarthy had lost his prestigious job, even though the House is now in a very precarious position of needing to decide on a new budget within six weeks to avoid a shutdown.

Here's why the House ousted McCarthy and why few seem all that broken up about it.

Why Was Kevin McCarthy Removed as House Speaker?

McCarthy's tenure was arguably in jeopardy before it even began. The former House Minority leader was backed by the majority of House Republicans when they regained control of the House in the 2022 midterms, but come time to elect a new speaker in January 2023, 19 hard-right Republicans, Matt Gaetz the most vocal among them, refused to vote for McCarthy. This led to a drawn-out stalemate in which McCarthy couldn't win the majority of votes he needed to become Speaker.

After 14 rounds of elections with no Speaker, McCarthy evidently made enough concessions to those hard-right Republicans to get their vote. Among those key concessions was a tweak in the House's rules, giving one Congressperson the power to put forth a resolution to remove the Speaker. This would come back to bite McCarthy later.

Fast forward to September 2023, the government appeared headed for a shutdown, as the House could not agree on a budget that would keep the government open. Sharks started to form around the Speaker, as Gaetz laid the blame for the impending shutdown entirely on McCarthy. He found a surprising ally in the White House, which posted a meme implying it agreed with him.

At the eleventh hour, McCarthy put forth a stopgap spending bill that granted some concessions to Democrats but only kept the Government running for another 45 days. He did not grant Democrats' request for 90 minutes to read the 70-page bill before taking it to the floor. Still, Democrats begrudgingly voted for it, temporarily avoiding the shutdown.

Conceding anything to Democrats was a bridge too far for Gaetz, who used the privilege he and his caucus won from McCarthy to introduce a motion to remove the Speaker on October 3rd. At the end of the day, all the Democrats and eight Republicans voted to remove McCarthy, and by a majority vote of 216-210, McCarthy was removed.

Why Do Democrats and Far-right Republicans Dislike McCarthy?

In brief, the Democrats dislike McCarthy for concessions he made to the far-right wing of the Republican party, and the far-right Republicans don't think he honored those concessions sufficiently enough.

At the time of the Speaker election, the Gaetz-led holdouts were displeased with McCarthy's willingness to work with Democrats in order to pass large spending bills. Gaetz in particular characterized McCarthy as a member of the "D.C. swamp," echoing a prominent phrase of Donald Trump.

The majority of Republican Congresspeople thought the demands of the extremist wing were unreasonable, but the vocal minority effectively held the House hostage with their demands, which is why the government was heading towards a shutdown come September.

McCarthy could have avoided getting voted out of his role had he formed a coalition with some moderate Democrats, but during his tenure, he seemed to antagonize Democrats at every turn. After Democrats bailed him out by passing his stopgap spending bill, he went on national television and blamed Democrats for the near-shutdown.

He is also leading an impeachment inquiry against President Joe Biden that Democrats feel is a farce. Additionally, he voted to overturn the results of the 2020 United States Presidential election, and he stated that Trump bore responsibility for the January 6th insurrection, but he walked it back. When the time came for Democrats to bail him out again, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries made it clear the Democrats would do no such thing.

How Has The Internet Responded?

It seems many on social media have the same amount of love for McCarthy that Democrats and the far-right House Republicans have — extremely little. News of his ousting was cheered from both sides, as both left and right-leaning users laughed at McCarthy's failure.

A major source of the memes is a tweet McCarthy posted Monday, the day before the motion to vacate would be brought to Congress. "Bring it on," it said.

It is unclear why McCarthy was so defiant ahead of the vote, but it now lives online as evidence of his overconfidence and belief in the job he had done, a belief that was not shared by the majority of congresspeople.

The situation online recalls a classic Darren Rovell tweet. It's an unprecedented and chaotic time in the American government, but one must admit this is tremendous content.

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For more information, check out the Ousting of Kevin McCarthy entry on Know Your Meme.