On October 3rd speaker Kevin McCarthy was removed as Speaker of the House. This is the first time in United States history that a speaker has ever been ousted from office. The Speaker of the House is 3rd in line for the US Presidency, so it’s very rare to see someone in such an important position removed like he was.

McCarthy was voted out in a 216-210 vote, with 8 republicans switching sides to vote him out. Every Democrat voted in favor of removing him, and all but 8 republicans voted in favor of him staying, but this 8 led the charge to get him removed.

The 8 Republicans that voted out McCarthy are all hard-right conservatives, and the group is led by Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida.

Kevin McCarthy was able to be elected speaker in the first place by cutting deals with both democrats and hard-right republicans, after a record-breaking 15 votes to elect him.

McCarthy was removed because he wanted to avoid a government shutdown, which would have led to millions of Americans losing their paychecks. The right-wing conservatives were in favor of shutting down the government unless they were met with all their demands, so McCarthy had to either give the conservatives what they want and shut down the government, or give democrats what they want and keep the government open. McCarthy cut a deal with the Democrats, which is what led to him being voted out.

We spoke to Matt Martino who said “I think McCarthy did the right thing by keeping the government open, he saved many people’s jobs by not shutting it down.” when asked about if McCarthy did the right thing keeping the government open.

The house will now have to vote on a new speaker, which may be very difficult, considering how hard it was to elect McCarthy. It took 15 votes to get him in, so who knows how many it could take to find a new Speaker that will appeal to all sides of the Republican party.

The Republican party has the majority in the House of Representatives, so it will be a Republican speaker, when and if they can all agree on one.

It is very important that a new speaker is elected quickly, because until it happens nothing will get done in congress, which will have a major negative impact on the nation.