The United States debt ceiling deal that was recently struck between President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has been the subject of much criticism. Amid this, some hard-line conservatives have now reportedly started floating the idea of toppling McCarthy from the speaker seat.
As per NBC News, on a recent Freedom Caucus call, Colorado representative Ken Buck pitched the idea of using the motion vacate — a rule that would any congress member to force a vote to remove the house speaker. This information was shared with CBS by two anonymous sources familiar with the matter.
Freedom Caucus
The Freedom Caucus as per the Pew Research is an invitation-only group in the United States House of Representatives. Ideologically, the group’s members are among the most conservative members of the House Republicans. Several of them fall at the extreme right end of the spectrum.
Also known as the House Freedom Caucus, the congressional caucus was formed in January 2015 by a group of conservative and Tea Party movement members with the aim of pushing the Republican leadership to the right.
Right-wing and the debt deal
Many right-wing members have spoken against the deal, calling it “insanity,” and a “turd sandwich.” However, they’ve held back from threatening to oust McCarthy over the agreement.
The ‘elephant in the room’
Reportedly, towards the end of the Freedom Caucus call, Representative Buck referred to the move toppling McCarthy as the “elephant in the room”.
However, as per the NBC News sources, House Freedom Caucus Chairman Scott Perry, who represents Pennsylvania’s 10th Congressional District, suggested it might be too early for such a drastic threat.
Paul Gosar, the Representative of Arizona, reportedly suggested using ‘the motion vacate’ to force McCarthy to allow members to amend the bills on the House floor, under an “open rule” that could stall the passage of the bill in the House.
Caucus Chairman Perry however responded by saying that they will discuss the issue later in Washington.
NBC reports that one of the lawmakers on call said that “Some people feel this is a complete miss,” but that, “there are five or more who would be sympathetic to Buck’s position.”
Yet another lawmaker reportedly made the blunt statement that “The unity we had is gone.”
(With inputs from agencies)
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