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The House of Representatives voted against tabling a motion to vacate the Speaker of the House’s seat on Tuesday afternoon, garnering 218 “nay” votes.
This vote came after Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., filed a motion to vacate McCarthy’s seat as Speaker on Monday. As reported by RSBN, Gaetz did so after threatening to file the motion following an alleged “side deal” that McCarthy made with Democrats to avert the government from shutting down over the past weekend.
Per RSBN, Gaetz said this on the House floor ahead of his move to file the motion:
“House Democrats and President Biden have said that as Speaker McCarthy was asking Republicans to vote for a continuing resolution…the Speaker of the House was actually cutting a side deal to bring Ukraine legislation to this floor with President Biden and House Democrats.”
Headed to the floor on Tuesday afternoon before the vote, Speaker McCarthy told Fox News’ Chad Pergram that he felt confident that he would remain speaker,
He stated, “Yes. Look, I’m an optimist because I think there is no point in being anything else…I would not understand if there’s a handful of Republicans who join Democrats who get to determine who the Speakers of the House is.”
He added that Republicans who might vote to vacate his chair would be “turning the floor over to the Democrats.”