Matt Gaetz Says He Wishes Ex-Speaker Kevin McCarthy Could Still Vote

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Newsweek

Published Feb 06, 2024 at 11:13 PM EST Updated Feb 06, 2024 at 11:14 PM EST


U.S. Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida said that he wishes former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was still in the lower chamber after his fellow Republicans failed to pass articles of impeachment against Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

While appearing Tuesday night on Newsmax's The Balance, Gaetz told host Eric Bolling that it would have "been nice" to have McCarthy's vote while watching a handful of Republicans go against the rest of their party after months of seeking to impeach the DHS secretary over his handling of the U.S. southern border. Four House Republicans joined Democrats in rejecting the impeachment bill, although one GOP member, Congressman Blake Moore, changed his vote to a "no" as a procedural measure to allow the House to reconsider the bill at a later time.

"I also wonder, wouldn't it have been nice to still have Kevin McCarthy in the House of Representatives," Gaetz told Bolling. "Never thought you'd hear me say that."

Gaetz was one of the driving forces behind the vote in the fall that removed McCarthy as House speaker after less than a year in the leadership position. The California Republican announced a few months later that he was stepping down from Congress. A special election to fill his seat is scheduled for March 19.


Read more: https://www.newsweek.com/matt-gaetz-says-he-wishes-ex-speaker-kevin-mccarthy-could-still-vote-1867530

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As a note, "traditionally", someone in the Congressional leadership (either the House Speaker or the Senate Majority Leader) will vote in a manner to preserve the option to bring a failed measured back at a later time if a bill is destined to fail in a close vote. But Johnson was apparently too cowardly to do that and left it to someone else to do that.

[COL Mustard]

1. Matt, please join Kevin

Have some guts and resign. Your time in the clown show should be over.

[AllyCat]

2. I did not know about this "one vote" procedural rule.

Cannot even believe it’s a rule. 1 vote out of 435 can bring back legislation, good or bad, just…because?

I need to do some reading about this.

[BumRushDaShow]

6. It's one of those things in Robert's Rules

Motion to Reconsider:

The motion to reconsider is available to any Member who votes on the prevailing side of a question and who wishes to move reconsideration on the same or succeeding legislative day. This often occurs when Members (usually minority Members) determine there is a need to slow down the legislative process. After final passage, it is the common practice in the House for the Speaker to declare, “Without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table.” If no objection is raised, this has the parliamentary effect of ending any possibility that another vote on the bill can take place.

https://www.congressionalinstitute.org/112th-congress-house-floor-procedures-manual/xiv-final-passage-of-a-bill/

Robert's Rules - https://robertsrules.com/ (there are older versions in the public domain)

In this vote's case, the "4th" Republican (Blake Moore (R) (UT-1)) who changed his vote to vote "nay" did a "Motion to Reconsider" right after the tally was read and a voice vote on the motion was carried out regarding dealing with that motion (the nays were loud but Johnson claimed the "yeas" had it) and right when Moore was going to request the "yeas and nays", the parliamentarian handed Johnson some notes where apparently due to the Rules that had been adopted for the vote earlier, they "postponed" that motion vote and everything else in order to vote on the standalone Israel aid package (that later failed).

There was a motion agreed to for them to return this morning at 9 am (after they had some ancillary motions about Congressional Medal of Honor events to come) and then they went into "Special Orders" with the 1 minutes speeches before adjourning last night. So I am guessing they will get back to the vote on the Motion for Reconsideration this morning (or some time today) to determine if they will be able to bring this vote back up again (and they may have to wheel Al Green back in there).

[brer cat]

3. Gaetz should have considered the consequences before he started

throwing his weight around.

[tanyev]

4. "We're going to strip you of your leadership but we'd like you to stick around and do whatever we want."

"Mmmkay?"

[rurallib]

5. OKEH - damn near fell out of my chair laughing

what a fucking idiot. Him & MTG should hit the road as a comedy duo

[lonely bird]

7. I'd rather the road hit them

They can take Boebert and Gosar with them.

[OnlinePoker]

8. He probably wishes George Santos was still there to vote

Last edited Wed Feb 7, 2024, 10:12 PM - Edit history (1)

I was being facetious when I wrote this, but apparently, I was right.

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