Republican Rep. Bob Good of Virginia will vote to remove House Speaker Kevin McCarthy from office for his “betrayal” on promises to conservative lawmakers made earlier this year, he told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Good referred to a motion to vacate the chair filed by Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida on Monday, which would remove McCarthy and force an immediate vote on a new speaker if passed.
Good claimed that McCarthy’s compromises with Democratic leaders to pass legislation that avoided a sovereign debt default in May and a government shutdown on Saturday were a “betrayal of Republican voters who gave us the majority” and suggested that many House Republicans are seeking to replace him.
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“He has passed the debt ceiling increase and the continuing resolution predominantly with Democratic votes. It was an unconditional continuing resolution keeping all the Biden and Schumer policies in place that are destroying the country. … That was a red line for me,” Good said. “I believe that was a failure of leadership and a betrayal of Republican voters who gave us a majority.”
Good alluded to an alleged written agreement between McCarthy and Republicans such as Gaetz and Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, who initially blocked McCarthy from the speakership over 15 rounds of voting in January before extracting several concessions. Good suggested that the agreement — which has not been made public — had been violated by McCarthy, necessitating his removal.
“It has been widely reported by them that there was a written agreement. Speaker McCarthy has not denied that. The speaker committed to cutting spending back to pre-COVID levels. … He committed to bringing a balanced budget to the floor, which he still has not done, even though it’s now October. There are other tenets of that agreement [with which] he failed to comply,” Good said. “He committed to bringing all 12 appropriations bills to the floor for a vote well before the Sept. 30 deadline. He failed to do that.”
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Good acknowledged that conservative policy measures in the House are likely to be opposed by the Democratic-led Senate and President Joe Biden, who can veto legislation, but asserted that McCarthy was insufficiently committed to negotiating for those priorities. “We don’t expect to win on everything but we do expect to win on some things when we have the House. We expect to fight for something more than just becoming the speaker,” he said.
So far, apart from Gaetz and Good, Republican Reps. Eli Crane and Andy Biggs of Arizona as well as Tim Burchell of Tennessee have said they will support the motion to vacate. With House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries whipping Democratic lawmakers to support the motion, it is likely that the motion will receive more than 218 votes to remove McCarthy, the number required to pass, unless some Democrats defy Jeffries.
“It’s a failure of a Republican speaker in a Republican House majority to work with Democrats,” Good said. “I’m going to do what I think is right.”
McCarthy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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