Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz told CNN on Sunday he plans to set in motion a vote to remove Speaker Kevin McCarthy from his role atop of the House this week after months of Republican infighting.

What You Need To Know

  • Rep. Matt Gaetz says he'll try to remove House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a fellow Republican, from his leadership position this week
  • Gaetz's announcement Sunday comes after McCarthy relied on Democratic support to pass legislation on Saturday that avoided a government shutdown
  • Gaetz is a Florida Republican who's a longtime McCarthy nemesis
  • In response, McCarthy says, “So be it. Bring it on. Let’s get over with it and let’s start governing." Gaetz contends McCarthy was in “brazen, material breach” of agreements he made with House Republicans in January when he ran for speaker
  • No speaker has ever been removed from office through the kind of move that Gaetz says he'll try

Gaetz is enraged that McCarthy worked with Democrats on Saturday to circumvent the efforts to shut down the government by the Florida Republican and his party’s hard-right faction, among other perceived slights.

“I do intend to file a motion to vacate against Speaker McCarthy this week. I think we need to rip off the band aid. I think we need to move on with new leadership that can be trustworthy,” Gaetz said on CNN’s "State of the Union." “The only way Kevin McCarthy is Speaker of the House at the end of this coming week is if Democrats bail him out.”

“They probably will. I actually think that when you believe in nothing, as Kevin McCarthy does, everything's negotiable,” Gaetz added.

The oft-incendiary congressman wanted further spending cuts, more and better equipped investigations into President Joe Biden, and a litany of other demands in exchange for voting to keep the government open after this weekend’s deadline. On Saturday, McCarthy reached a last-minute deal with House and Senate Democrats to fund the government until Nov. 17 with overwhelming bipartisan majorities in both chambers of Congress.

McCarthy predicted Sunday that he’s not giving up his gavel any time soon.

“I’ll survive. This is personal with Matt,” McCarthy said on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday.  “So be it. Bring it on. Let’s get over with it and let’s start governing. If he’s upset because he tried to push us into a shutdown and I made sure government didn’t shut down, then let’s have that fight.”

As part of a rules package McCarthy agreed to in January to secure his speakership after a historically-long 15 rounds of voting, any one member of the House majority can file a “motion to vacate” and trigger a vote to oust the speaker.

“Speaker McCarthy made an agreement with House conservatives in January and since then he has been in brazen, repeated material breach of that agreement,” Gaetz said on Sunday.

Among his frustrations were that McCarthy did not achieve spending cuts desired by many Republicans and that they may move ahead on a vote for Ukraine funding separate from the shutdown-averting continuing resolution that will keep the government running for the next several weeks. Gaetz and his ideological peers on the far-right oppose U.S. aiding Ukraine as it seeks to repel the Russia’s invasion.

Proponents of allowing a lone lawmaker to file the motion to vacate said it promotes accountability, noting its long history in the House. The last use of the motion was in 2015, when then-Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina, a Republican who later became President Donald Trump’s White House chief of staff, introduced a resolution to declare the speaker’s office vacant. Two months later, then-Speaker John Boehner said he would be stepping down.

Immediately after he revealed his plans, Democrats had varied reactions to the role Gaetz expected them to play: voting with a large portion of Republicans to save McCarthy’s job. Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi advised House Democrats to “follow the leader,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who said on Saturday night his caucus had not discussed their plans and would “cross that bridge when we get to it.”

New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a progressive, said she doesn’t intend to vote for a Republican to lead the chamber, but would vote to oust McCarthy and would consider a power-sharing agreement if one was offered.

“It's not up to Democrats to save Republicans, from themselves especially,” Ocasio-Cortez said on CNN minutes after Gaetz’ interview. “I think Kevin McCarthy is a very weak speaker. He clearly has lost control of his caucus.”

“I think that our main priority has to be the American people and what's going to keep our governance in a cohesive and strong place. But unless Kevin McCarthy asks for our vote, again, I don't think we give something away for free,” she continued.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., said on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” that Gaetz’s plot was “an absolute waste of time” and labeled the effort hypocritical because the Florida congressman is depending on possibly hundreds of Democratic votes, something Gaetz criticized McCarthy for relying on to pass the continuing resolution.

“Basically, Gaetz is going to work with Nancy Pelosi, Hakeem Jeffries and the rest of the Democrats in order to remove a Republican speaker,” Smith said. “If you remove a Republican speaker, that then puts the Democrats in power. These investigations will be done and stalled. That is unacceptable.”

Another House Republican on the party’s furthest right reaches, Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., said on “Fox News Sunday” said he opposed the short-term funding deal, though he missed the vote. But he stopped short of calling for McCarthy’s ouster.

“He is in trouble,” Donalds said. “There are a lot of trust issues in my chamber right now.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.