McCarthy says he won’t run for Speaker again after being ousted: recap

McCarthy said he will “look” at remaining in Congress after Tuesday’s historic vote to vacate the Speakership.

‘I’ll look at that,” McCarthy said when asked at a press conference if he will remain in Congress.

McCarthy did rule out considering another position with leadership.

“There’s a lot of great people in conference,” McCarthy said. “There’s always other people to do jobs. It is amazing the talent that we had.”

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) shot back at McCarthy after the former Speaker said the Republicans who voted to oust him “don’t get to say they’re conservative because they’re angry and chaotic.”

“What Kevin McCarthy believes about governing is that we have to utilize these continuing resolutions and if the continuing resolution is conservative enough, if you hang some bells and whistles on it, then that really ought to be able to pacify people who are right-leaning throughout the country,” Gaetz said in a Fox News interview late Tuesday.

McCarthy took a swing at Republicans who helped oust him from the Speakership Tuesday, saying at a press conference that “they are not conservatives.”

“They don’t get to say they’re conservative because they’re angry and they’re chaotic,” McCarthy said. “That’s not the party I belong to.”

“They are not conservatives, and they do not have the right to have the title,” he continued.

Read more about it here.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) thanked McCarthy for his service to the nation after McCarthy announced he would not run again to serve as Speaker.  

McConnell often broke with McCarthy on key policy and political questions, but in the end praised what he called their “close working partnership.” 

“Speaker McCarthy has my sincere thanks for his service to our nation in what is often a thankless role,” McConnell said in a statement.

Speaker Pro Tem Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) ordered Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to vacate her Capitol Building office so he could take it over, just hours after becoming acting Speaker, Pelosi’s office said Tuesday.

McHenry became acting Speaker after Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) was ousted from the role Tuesday, the first time a Speaker has been voted out of the job. 

Read the full story here.

Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas) announced late Tuesday he will file paperwork to nominate former President Trump to be the next Speaker of the House.

“This week, when the U.S. House of Representatives reconvenes, my first order of business will be to nominate Donald J. Trump for Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives,” Nehls said in a statement.

Read the full story here.

Speaking with reporters for nearly an hour, McCarthy wraps up by both looking back and forward.

“Look, I’ve been very fortunate. When I came to Congress, in my second term, I got to be chief deputy whip. I got to be majority whip. I got to be majority leader. I’ve been minority leader, and I’ve been Speaker. I’ve been blessed. And there’s something about 10,000 hours … I believe in it, lot of different experience. And I believe in bringing new blood up and helping them, and I want to help them all the way.”

And to reporters: “Look, I enjoy you. I don’t know if you’ll cover me as much but I’m sure I won’t miss you. But see you soon.”

Asked by a reporter if he’d spoken to President Biden, McCarthy said he couldn’t remember when they’d last spoken.

“I was thinking about that. It’s been a long, long time. I couldn’t remember when I spoke to him last,” McCarthy said.

“As a president, I would engage more.”

“But you know what, if I lose my job over doing what I truly believe what’s right, I’m very at peace with it. You asked earlier like, when did I decide? I knew they would make the motion on me. It didn’t make one bit of difference. I felt very comfortable that decision. I think the American public believe that decision was right.”

Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) recounted a conversation with Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) as he was trying to become Speaker.

He said he was having trouble with the conference wanting to be able to have just one person bring up a motion to vacate. “And she said just give it to them. I’ll always back you up.”

But he then cited Democrats for working against getting things done.

“They just started doing the other things, and my fear is the institution fell today because you can’t do the job,” McCarthy said.

“Saturday, I took a risk for the American public. Regardless of what anybody says, no one knew whether that would pass. The Democrats didn’t want that bill. Yes, they pulled a fire alarm. Yes, they do their conga line. Yes, they wanted to delay. But it was all for the American people. I could not look the troops in the eye and say I would not pay them.”

In remarks Tuesday evening after losing the Speakership, Rep. Kevin McCarthy said the conference would choose someone else for Speaker, and he answered his opponents by saying what he didn’t regret.

“I don’t regret standing up for choosing government over grievance. It is my responsibility. It is my job. I do not regret negotiating. Our government is designed to find compromise. I don’t regret my efforts to build coalitions and find solutions. I was raised to solve problems not create them.”

“I will not seek to run again for Speaker of the House. I may have lost a vote today, but I fought for what I believe in — and I believe in America. It has been an honor to serve,” he said Tuesday evening.

Watch him speak here.

Former Vice President Mike Pence said he is “deeply disappointed” over Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s ousting as Speaker.

Pence was speaking at a foreign policy forum at Georgetown University when moderator Meg Kinnard with The Associated Press broke the news that the House voted to remove McCarthy.

“I am deeply disappointed that a handful of Republicans would partner with all the Democrats in the House of Representatives to oust the Speaker of the House,” Pence said. “I expect before the week is out, there will be more votes on who will be elected speaker of the House.”

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) did not directly answer whether his intention is to seek the Speaker’s gavel, saying he has not made any announcement.

“Obviously a lot of things happened today that we’re not expected. There’s gonna be a lot of conversations that members will be having,” Scalise said.

The House is not expected to vote on a new Speaker this week.

The GOP conference will have a candidate forum next Tuesday to select their pick for the job, with Speaker Pro Tem Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) presiding.

“So between now and then there’s gonna be a lot obviously a lot of work to be done to try to consider and vet and discuss and compare notes and see who can build a coalition for support and then we as a conference will hear from them and challenge them,” said Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.), one of the eight Republicans who voted to oust Rep. Kevin McCarthy.

It’s not immediately clear who could be nominated for Speaker instead.

Asked if he would run for Speaker, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) pointed to House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.).

“He’d made a great Speaker,” Emmer said.

Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), meanwhile, said the party needs “a fresh face.”

“We need someone different that’s not a part of the circus at the moment.”

Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) tells reporters at the Capitol that the House is not planning to reconvene until next Tuesday, reports The Hill’s Mychael Schnell.

Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) informed members of his conference Tuesday night that he will not run for Speaker again after the House voted to oust him from the post hours earlier, multiple lawmakers confirmed to The Hill.

Check back for the developing story here.

House Republicans are holding a closed-door meeting at 6:30 p.m. EDT.

President Biden wants to see the House elect a Speaker quickly, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement issued Tuesday evening.

“Once the House has met their responsibility to elect a Speaker, he looks forward to working together with them and with the Senate to address the American peoples’ priorities,” Jean-Pierre said.

Read more here.

— Alex Gangitano

Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) leaned into his football background in making sense of what’s going on in the House on Tuesday.

“If you lose your head coach midway through the season … things don’t work out too well,” The Hill’s Al Weaver tweeted, reporting on what Tuberville said.

READ the full story here: These eight Republicans voted to oust McCarthy

Rep. Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told CNN’s Jake Tapper that while she and other Democrats took no joy in the proceedings of the afternoon, it’s up to Republicans to fix the problem.

“We cannot be responsible for a governing party that cannot govern. And this Republican Party has been unable to govern for a long time,” the Washington state Democrat said, ahead of listing a range of issues that she sees in the current chamber.

“The Republicans have the majority in the House, it is their job to pick a speaker. They cannot come to us and say, ‘You pick a Speaker.’ That’s not our responsibility.”

Virginia Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly told NBC News on Tuesday that Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s interview with CBS News over the weekend in which he tried to pin a government shutdown on Democrats was “one of the most crushingly stupid things somebody could do on the eve of your survival vote.”

Connolly said Democrats were shown a clip of the interview on Tuesday morning, ahead of the Speakership vote.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said after the vote to oust Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) as Speaker that it is “a solemn moment for the country and for the House of Representatives.”

“House Democrats will continue to put people over politics and work together in a bipartisan way to make life better for everyday Americans. It is our hope that traditional Republicans will walk away from MAGA extremism and join us in partnership for the good of the country,” he said in a statement.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), who is on maternity leave, tweeted Tuesday that she would return to work to vote for a Speaker.

In a post on X, she laid out her terms for what she’s looking for.

In January, she was one of the holdouts who voted against McCarthy as Speaker.