Matt Gaetz's Plan to 'Paralyze' House Sparks Republican Anger

Representative Tom McClintock, a California Republican, decried his House colleague Matt Gaetz's recent threats against House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, which he said would "paralyze" the chamber.

Gaetz, a MAGA-aligned congressman representing Florida's 1st District, has in recent months been escalating his conflict with McCarthy, whom he has accused of not sufficiently pursuing the interests of himself and other further-right House Republicans. He previously threatened to begin calling frequent motions to vacate McCarthy, a California Republican, from the speakership if he did not do more to meet certain goals.

On Sunday, the Florida congressman vowed to make good on those threats and call a motion to vacate the speakership within the week. This came after McCarthy put a stopgap federal funding bill up for a vote on Saturday to avert a government shutdown at the last minute, which passed with considerable support from Democrats and included no spending cuts requested by Republicans like Gaetz.

During a speech on the House floor on Monday, McClintock, a more moderate Republican who has represented districts in California since 2009, lambasted Gaetz's threats against McCarthy. He argued that the motion would only need a few Republicans to cross the aisle in order to be successful and would prevent the chamber from accomplishing anything until a new speaker could be elected. Given the historically difficult process it took to elect McCarthy, it is expected by some that a new vote would take a similarly long time.

"Now we are faced with the threat that a Republican will move to vacate the Republican Speaker of the House," McClintock said. "It will only require four other Republican members to join the Democrats to achieve this result. The immediate effect will be to paralyze the House indefinitely because no other business can be taken up until a replacement is elected."

He later added: "The supreme irony is that this is being initiated by self-described conservatives. Do they honestly believe that when the Democrats side with them to remove a Republican speaker, they will then side with them to name a more conservative replacement? Of course not. The Democrats will certainly recruit the most liberal Republicans to establish a left-of-center coalition to run the House."

Any member of Congress can file a motion to vacate the speakership at any point, a concession McCarthy made to conservative hardliners in his effort to win their support during his House speaker race in January. Once a motion is filed, it would take a simple majority to remove him.

Newsweek reached out to Gaetz's office via email for comment.

A few Democratic members of the House have already gone on record with their intention to vote in favor of removing McCarthy from the speakership. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York said on Sunday that she would "absolutely" vote in favor of the motion, while her fellow progressive colleague, Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota said that she "can't wait to take the vote to vacate."