Matt Gaetz threatens to oust McCarthy as House speaker in fiery floor speech
Firebrand Rep. Matt Gaetz on Tuesday threatened to move to oust House if he doesn’t comply with his commitments to GOP hardliners.
Gaetz (R-Fla.) vowed to go ahead with the motion to vacate the chair if McCarthy𓆉 (R-Calif.) allows a stopgap measure or continuing resolution to receive a vote on th꧃e floor.
“No continuing resolutions, individual spending bills, votes on balanced budgets and term limits,” Gaetz warned.
“Subpoenas for Hunter Biden and the members of the Biden family. Impeach Joe Biden. Do these things or face a motion to vacate the chair.”
McCarthy has indicated he supports a continuing resolution to forestall a government shutdown by the month’s end.
Every fiscal yea💮r, Congress has to fund th🦹e government, or it shuts down.
Here’s what the Biden family business scandal impeachment inquiry would look like
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy launched an impeachment inquiry Tueܫsday into President Biden — turbocharging congressional power to acquire documents and testimony about Biden’s role in his family’s foreign business dealings while he was vice 🔥president.
House Republicans already have issued an 🙈array of demands to executive branch agencies relating to Joe Biden’s involvement with first son Hunter Biden and first brother James Biden’s international dealings — in many cases setting September deadlines that could soon escalate into litigation.
The inquiry aims to answer a number of questions:
What’s in Joe Biden’s vice presidential emails?
While vice president, Joe Biden used the pseudonyms “Robert L. Peters” and “Robin Ware” to communicate with staff members — leaving a paper trail of nearly 5,400 written records.
The House Oversight Committee ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚdemanded those communicati🧜ons from the National Archives with an Aug. 31 deadline, but a source tells The Post the agency did not comply.
What do Hunter Biden’s bank records show?
Congressional Republicans are preparing to issue subpoenas to banks for accounts held by Hunter and James Biden — after previously su𝄹bpoenaing som꧂e of the associates’ bank statements.
The records could show whether any money was transferred to Joe Biden from his relatives’ foreign income streams and also whether they covered a substantial portion of his expenses. It’s possiblౠe the House will later seek the president’s bank records too.
During the debt ceiling fight, both parties agreed to fund the governme🐎nt via 12 appropriations bills instead of a 𝓡massive omnibus bill.
But Congress remains far awa🅺y from accomplishing that before the fiscal year concludes. This is why many lawmakers have favored a continuing resolution to keep the government open and buy more time.
Even Gaetz 🌺acknowledged that reality in his floor speech.
“There is no way to pass all the appropriations bills now,” Gaetz conceded. “And it’s not like we didn’t know when Sept. 30 was going to show up on the calendar.”
Should Congress fail to act by Sept. 30, either through ⛄the 12 appropriations bills or a continuing resolution, the government will shut down.
Complicating passage of the appr🀅opriations bills is a vast disagreement between the House and Senate on spending levels.
Although the two chambers agreed to top-line spending levels in the Fiscal Responsibility Act that ended the debt ceiling impasse, McCarthy has🧜 caved to pressure from conservative hardliners and tasked his appropriators to craft thinner bills.
McCarthy’s right flank, namely the House Freedom Caucus, has clamored for even deeper cuts in spending.
A motion to vacate only necessitates one vote to initiate and would only need a few Republicans to band together with Democrats to oust him, given the GOP’s wafer-thin majority in the chamber, which Republicans control 222 seats to 212.
On Monday, Mc𝓰Carthy downplayed the threat🅠 from Gaetz, who mused about teaming up with Democrats to boot him from the speakership.
“Look, Matt’s Matt,” McCarthy said.
Gaetz, who is under an ethics investigation for which his allies have faulted McCarthy, voted “Present” for McCarthy earlier this year to help end his grovel for the gavel, which took a historically unprecedented 15 votes.
To break the impasse and claim the speakership, McCarthy cut a multitude of deals with GOP hardliner🌄s. Gaetz put him on notice Tuesday.
“Mr. Speaker, you are out of compliance with the agreement that allowed you to assume this role. The path forward for the House of Representatives is to either bring you into immediate total compliance or remove you,” Gaetz added.
Earlier in the day Tuesday, McCarthy took a step toward one of Gaetz’s demands and announced that he was directing an impeachment inquiry into President Biden.
In doing so, McCarthy flouted his “if we move forward with an impeachment inquiry, it would occur through a vote on the floor of the People’s House and not through a declaration by one person.”
The House reconvened Tuesday after a six-week recess and has 11 days in ♏i🐼ts legislative calendar before the end of the month.
