Congressman Huffman Statement on Vote to Remove Kevin McCarthy as Speaker

October 03, 2023

Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Representative Jared Huffman (CA-02) released the following statement:

“Nine months of chaos and dysfunction just culminated in the first-ever removal of a sitting Speaker of the House.  The obvious takeaway is that extreme MAGA Republicans are incapable of governing.  Kevin McCarthy proved this by empowering them; making all manner of procedural and policy concessions to them – including promises no responsible leader would make; and then watching them ironically use one of his concessions to terminate his speakership.

“It is time for House Republicans to end the chaos and choose a credible Speaker who will put the country and the institution of Congress above appeasement of MAGA extremists.  Toward that end, I hope the next Speaker will learn two important lessons from the debacle of the past nine months:  ceding power to MAGA extremists is a recipe for disaster; and repeatedly breaking your word catches up to you.  McCarthy broke so many promises and betrayed the institution so many times that Democrats could not in good conscience help save his dubious speakership.

“Republicans must now find a way to resolve the unprecedented debacle they created.  The American people can count on Democrats to continue being the adults in the 118th Congress – just as we repeatedly cast all 212 of our votes for a true leader, Hakeem Jeffries, to be Speaker of the House in January; just as we provided the votes to end the manufactured GOP default crisis in May; and just as we provided the votes to prevent a MAGA government shutdown last weekend.  Democrats are united, energized, and focused on putting people over politics.”

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