A motion by Rep. Matt Gaetz to remove Kevin McCarthy as Speaker can be found in Capitol BATHROOM
- The decision to remove McCarthy from the speakership was found in a bathroom under the House floor, next to a cup of coffee on a baby changing table.
- It ‘declared the office of Speaker of the House of Representatives vacant’
- The motion was drafted just three days after McCarthy announced an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden
A resolution by Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz seeking to vacate Kevin McCarthy’s seat in the House Speakership was discovered Wednesday in a Capitol Hill bathroom.
Journalist Matt Laslo wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the short movement was found on a baby changing table in a toilet under the floor of the house. He posted images of the sheet of paper folded in half next to a cup of coffee.
The motion “declared the office of Speaker of the House of Representatives vacant” and included a draft date of September 15, 2023 at 11:22 a.m. – just three days after Speaker McCarthy announced the opening of the impeachment inquiry against the President. Joe Biden.
Representative Gaetz is part of the pro-Trump MAGA branch of the Republican Party and was part of the group of Freedom Caucus members who opposed McCarthy’s bid for the presidency when Republicans won the House of Representatives in the 2022 midterm elections conquered.
He is one of McCarthy’s most outspoken critics.
A resolution removing Speaker Kevin McCarthy from his post was found in the bathroom under the floor of the House, next to a cup of coffee on a baby changing table.
The motion “declared the office of Speaker of the House of Representatives vacant” and included a draft date of September 15, 2023 at 11:22 am.
It is unclear how Gaetz’s resolution ended up in the bathroom and who left it there.
McCarthy’s office did not respond to a request for comment on the resolution’s discovery.
On the same day that McCarthy announced the impeachment inquiry, after months of pressure from the far-right arm of the Republican Party, Gaetz warned the Speaker that launching the investigation to appease the right wing will not save him from possible impeachment.
“I’ve fallen for this mirage before,” Gaetz said Tuesday of the impeachment inquiry.
“It’s clear that McCarthy was not serious about impeaching Mayorka,” he said of the time the Speaker went to the southern border to “gaslight” efforts to oust Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
“The first thing that happens is Kevin McCarthy worries about losing power, as he did in January, and as he did in recent weeks as I increased the pressure on him,” Gaetz noted. “And then the second thing he does (is) indicate that there is an impending impeachment or impeachment inquiry, and the reality is that this has just been a slow boat to China so far. It hasn’t been authentic, genuine or robust.”
Some claim there were threats to remove McCarthy if he did not launch an impeachment.
The discovery of Rep. Matt Gaetz’s one-page motion follows McCarthy announcing an impeachment inquiry into President Biden. Gaetz is one of McCarthy’s biggest Republican critics
But Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), a fellow MAGA lawmaker, assured there were no threats against McCarthy.
The first impeachment trial is set for next Thursday in the House Oversight Committee, which is chaired by Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.).
Opening an investigation gives House of Representatives investigators expanded powers, including greater authority to issue subpoenas. The panel has already subpoenaed the bank records of President Biden’s son Hunter and brother James.
There is speculation that the investigation could result in the subpoena of Joe and Hunter Biden’s testimony to Republican House investigators.