Ocasio-Cortez knocks McCarthy for blaming Democrats in speech after ouster as Speaker

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) railed against former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calf.) for blaming Democrats for being ousted from his leadership role in a historic vote. 

“Does anyone believe for one minute that McCarthy would help elect a Dem speaker ‘for the institution’?” Ocasio-Cortez wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. “McCarthy’s hubris is a theme. He loudly stated he wouldn’t negotiate [with] Dems, called virtually none, trashed those who helped w/ [a continuing resolution], and then expected Dem votes for free?” 

Her comments came just hours after McCarthy was ousted by a 216-210 vote, led by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.). Ocasio-Cortez was responding to McCarthy’s line from his speech following the vote, where he said, “I think today was a political decision by the Democrats.” 

All House Democrats and eight Republicans voted to remove the Speaker’s gavel from the California Republican.

Over the weekend, Ocasio-Cortez said she would “absolutely” vote for a motion to oust McCarthy, while still leaving the door open to negotiations if the Speaker came to Democrats for help. But, she said at the time, the party shouldn’t’ “give up votes for free.” 

Several Democrats appeared to have their minds made up hours before the vote Tuesday, telling The Hill they were unified as a party in not saving McCarthy from the ouster. In the narrow House GOP majority, the eight Republican votes were enough to tank his chances. 

After exhausting options to pass a GOP-only stopgap plan ahead of the Oct. 1 funding deadline, McCarthy rushed to roll out a bipartisan continuing resolution (CR), provoking the ire of hard-line House Republicans. 

The stopgap measure will fund the government at current spending levels through Nov. 17 and includes $16 billion in federal disaster assistance. But, it lacks Ukraine funding, a White House priority largely opposed by several GOP members. 

The CR also notably did not include spending cuts or border policy changes, dealing a blow to conservatives’ demands.