Status: 03.10.2023, 21:16 p.m.
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Kevin McCarthy was considered politically weakened from the beginning. © J. Scott Applewhite/AP/dpa
The road to the chairmanship of the US House of Representatives was rocky for Kevin McCarthy. After the budget dispute, the right-wing fringe of his party is once again making life difficult for him - and resorting to a rare means.
For the first time in more than a hundred years, the U.S. House of Representatives is facing a vote on a possible removal of its chairman. Republican Kevin McCarthy is facing an internal party revolt and must seriously fear for his office.
Radical Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz is leading the uprising against his party colleague McCarthy. He introduced a motion to remove him from office in parliament on Monday evening. McCarthy's supporters initially tried to defeat the motion with a countermotion and prevent a vote on a possible removal of the chairman. However, the necessary majority for this did not materialize.
The plenary then began a debate on Gaetz's motion, at the end of which the historic vote is likely to stand. It would be the first such vote in the plenary session of the chamber since 1910. A motion to remove the chairman is extremely rare in the U.S. House of Representatives. In the history of the Chamber of Congress, such motions have only been made three times. And only once has there been a vote in the plenary of the chamber so far. No chairman has ever lost his office in this way.
Gaetz accuses McCarthy, among other things, of making common cause with Democratic President Joe Biden instead of working for the Republican caucus. The occasion is the budget dispute in the USA. The hardliner Gaetz is bothered, among other things, by the fact that McCarthy had averted an imminent shutdown of the government at the last moment with the votes of Democrats at the weekend. However, he also accuses his party colleague of violating agreements. Gaetz said in the debate that McCarthy was not to be trusted. Dpa