Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy poses at the Capitol in Washington, the United States, September 29, 2018. Xinhua Photo by Aaron
The House passed the resolution by a vote of 216-210, with eight Republicans and Democrats voting in favor.
Representative Patrick McHenry, Republican of North Carolina, was appointed Speaker pro tempore immediately after the resolution was passed. White House Press Secretary Carina Jean-Pierre said in a statement that given the urgent challenges facing the United States, President Biden expects the House of Representatives to quickly elect a new speaker.
Former US President Donald Trump has expressed frustration at the disarray within the Republican Party. "Why are Republicans always fighting among themselves and why aren't they fighting the radical left Democrats who are destroying our country?" he said on Real Social, a social platform he created.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a Democrat, said in a statement on the same day that under the Republican majority, the reorganization of the House strengthened the power of right-wing extremists, made the House bow to their demanding demands, and imposed a rigid partisan ideology. He called on Republicans to end "infighting" in the House GOP.
The U.S. House of Representatives voted to remove Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy from office in Washington, D.C., Oct. 3, 2019. Photo by Liu Jie/Xinhua
Over the past period of time, the democratic and Republican parties in the US Congress have continued to fight over the issue of federal government funding for the new fiscal year, highlighting the significant differences between the two parties on issues such as cutting federal spending, providing more aid to Ukraine and strengthening border control, and also prompting the Republican Party to continue to escalate the "infighting". McCarthy failed to get the support of Republican conservatives in the House of Representatives to pass the appropriations bill, and he launched a "clean" short-term funding bill without attaching conservative demands at the last moment, relying on the support of Democrats to pass the bill, avoiding the federal government "shutdown", and also intensified the contradiction with Republican conservatives.
On the evening of the 2nd, Matt Gates, a Republican representative from Florida, proposed a motion to replace McCarthy in the House of Representatives, accusing McCarthy of violating the terms negotiated with the party's extreme conservatives when he was elected speaker at the beginning of the year.
In January, it took 15 votes over five days for McCarthy to reach a compromise with the party's ultra-conservative wing and be elected speaker. As part of the compromise, McCarthy agreed to lower the threshold for a "motion to vacate" to a single member of the House of Representatives, rather than the previously required majority support of a single party.
