‘He’s a liar. He’s a fraud.’ How lack of trust sank Kevin McCarthy’s speakership
Trust is the most valuable currency a congressional leader has. And many of the 216 members of Congress who ousted Rep. Kevin McCarthy as speaker Tuesday considered him a liar.
This spring, he negotiated a budget deal with President Joe Biden then later bent to conservative hardliners, almost leading the federal government into a shutdown last week. In the process, he said there would be more spending cuts, only to present a stopgap measure that contained none of them.
McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, is the first speaker to lose his job because of a colleagues’ vote. He told Republicans he would not seek the gavel now.
“Chaos is somebody we cannot trust with their word,” Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz said Tuesday. “That’s why I’ve moved to vacate the chair.”
The House voted to vacate his office, 216-210, after Gaetz, a member of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, filed a motion to remove McCarthy over his reliance on Democrats to avert a government shutdown. Eight Republicans voted to get rid of McCarthy.
The only person McCarthy can blame? Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Long Beach, said, “Himself.”
“He’s a liar. He’s a fraud,” Garcia said. “And he’s an extremist.”
McCarthy defended himself vigorously to reporters late Tuesday insisting he was not a liar.
He told reporters he did not renege on the debt limit deal earlier this year with President Joe Biden. Democrats charged that he sought budget cuts deeper than those in the agreement.
“I kept my word,” he said.
And, he said, “I wouldn’t change a thing” in his turmoil-filled speakership.
Democrats said they could not trust McCarthy
Democrats were united against McCarthy Tuesday. The backbreaker may have come this past weekend, after they supplied the votes to head off a shutdown. The next morning on “Face the Nation,” blamed Democrats for delaying tactics.
To survive, McCarthy needed the trust of Democrats and the respect that went with it.
Many Democrats could simply not erase the memory of January 2021. During the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, McCarthy told President Trump to “call these people off.” He said “they’re your people.” A few days later, he said Trump “bears responsibility” for the attack.
Reports said he told colleagues he would urge Trump to resign before his term ended, and he supported a formal censure of the president.
Two weeks later, McCarthy joined Trump in Florida, and they were photographed smiling. Trump issued a statement that he “has agreed to work with Leader McCarthy on helping the Republican Party to become a majority in the House.”
Democrats and some Republicans were appalled, and they haven’t forgotten.
“He said all the right things and then two weeks later he totally backtracked,” recalled Rep. Ami Bera, D-Sacramento, Tuesday.
Adding to the outrage was an effort later in 2021 to establish a bipartisan committee to investigate Jan. 6. The Democratic-run House passed a measure that allowed then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi to name eight members, while McCarthy, then minority leader, appointed five.
Pelosi, D-San Francisco, rejected two of McCarthy’s picks, questioning their ability to be objective. McCarthy then pulled his appointees. Eventually, the committee had two Republicans, both Trump foes.
That was another example, Bera said, of a “breakdown in trust. You can’t lead if you don’t have trust.”
McCarthy’s supporters contested that he is loyal
A House Speaker, or Senate Majority Leader, has to somehow keep dozens of party members — ambitious, aggressive politicians — in line on complex votes time after time.
What former Senate leader Trent Lott once called “herding cats” is done with assurances that a specific spending item or a coveted committee assignment will be available.
Those “little favors” are the lubricant that keeps leaders effective, and in office.
McCarthy’s supporters argue he was unfailingly loyal to fellow Republicans.
“The speaker never denied us a vote on anything he could, or in some cases, couldn’t pass,” said Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista. “That’s all he could do. He provided as good an environment as he could.”
His loyalists pointed to the massive spending bills that have been moving through the House, bills that would dramatically cut spending and end some signature Biden administration initiatives, notably his environmental agenda.
Those bills, said Issa, “are all as conservative as we could get.”
Republicans fear the House will descend into chaos
Almost all House Republicans shared that view of the spending bills and warned that without McCarthy, the House would descend into chaos.
“We are at the precipice,” said Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Elk Grove, an aggressive McCarthy supporter who has reportedly argued for his retention in this week’s closed-door GOP meetings.
Of Gaetz, said Rep. John Duarte, R-Modesto, “I don’t think anybody, including himself, probably really understands what he’s trying to do.”
As part of his deal in January to become speaker, through 15 rounds of votes, McCarthy agreed to let any single lawmaker call for a vote to oust him. A majority of the House would have to offer their vote of no confidence to remove him.
For now, Republican Rep. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina is serving as an acting speaker.
Republicans must pick their next speaker.
Democrats don’t plan to help them.
“They’ve been in disarray since the very first time they had to vote 14 plus-times,” Garcia said.
This story was originally published October 3, 2023 at 3:39 PM.
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