House conservatives exacted revenge on Tuesday for House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s alleged capitulation on the debt ceiling crisis.
Members of the House Freedom Caucus voiced their anger with McCarthy after he reached a deal with President Joe Biden, which he signed into law on Saturday. Some members of the caucus believed that McCarthy violated the power-sharing agreement he made with conservatives to win the speakership in January, leading at least one to threaten to remove McCarthy as speaker.
But instead of a motion to vacate the chair, House conservatives blindsided Republican leaders by temporarily sinking legislation to protect gas stoves.
In a 220-206 vote, about a dozen House conservatives joined forces to block a resolution to establish the rules for voting on the Gas Stove Protection and Freedom Act and Save Our Stoves Act, despite principally supporting the bills.
“Today, we took down the rule because we’re frustrated at the way this place is operating,” Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) said.
“We took a stand in January to end the era of the imperial speakership,” he added. “We’re concerned that the fundamental commitments that allowed Kevin McCarthy to assume the speakership have been violated as a consequence of the debt limit deal.”
Rep. Dan Bishop, moreover, explained that House conservatives want to “enforce the agreement we reached in January under which Kevin McCarthy assumed speakership.”
“We had an agreement that had been forged by all of us together, and it was utterly jettisoned unilaterally by the speaker. And there’s been nothing so far to address the consequences of that,” he said.
Another issue central to the revolt is an allegation that Republican leadership delayed a bill that would reverse the Biden administration’s regulation of pistol braces to punish House conservatives for voting against the debt ceiling bill. Leadership denied the accusation, but amid the hubbub on Tuesday, McCarthy promised to bring the bill to a vote next week, according to its leading co-sponsor, Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.).
Bishop, meanwhile, said the conservative caucus has not yet decided whether to initiate the motion to vacate to remove McCarthy.
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