Evelyn Reynolds

Doubts about Australia’s willingness to join forces with the US in a war against China are being cited by congressional researchers as a potential obstacle to the Aukus nuclear-powered submarine deal.A new research paper looks at the US plan to sell Australia between three and five Virginia-class submarines in the 2030s but suggests the idea “could weaken deterrence of potential Chinese aggression”.That stage of the deal aims to help Canberra bridge a “capability gap” before Australian-built nuclear-powered submarines begin to enter into service in the 2040s.The paper, prepared by the Congressional Research Service, aims to provide members of the US congress with a neutral summary of key arguments likely to be raised by supporters and sceptics of the plan.It lists six “potential arguments from sceptics”, including that the sale could weaken deterrence “if China were to find reason to believe, correctly or not, that Australia might use its Virginia-class boats less effectively than the US Navy would use them”.That weakening of deterrence could also be the case if Beijing were to conclude “that Australia might not involve its military, including its Virginia-class boats, in US-China crises or conflicts that Australia viewed as not engaging important Australian interests”.The report cited comments by the Australian defence minister, Richard Marles, in March that the Aukus deal did not include any pre-commitments to the US regarding involvement in a potential future conflict over Taiwan.
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The report added: “Virginia-class boats are less certain to be used in a US-China conflict over Taiwan, or less certain to be used in such a conflict in the way that the United States might prefer, if they are sold to Australia rather than retained in US Navy service.”In another argument that may embolden Republican critics of the submarine sale, the paper noted “the challenges that the US submarine industrial base is experiencing in achieving a desired construction rate of two Virginia-class boats per year”.The ability of the US to build replacement submarines for Virginia-class boats sold to Australia was “uncertain”, according to the paper first reported by the Australian Financial Review.The paper also suggested that the costs for Australia to acquire, operate and maintain Virginia-class submarines “could reduce, perhaps significantly, funding within Australia’s military budget for other Australian military capabilities” – especially if the figures “turn out to be higher than expected”.“If this were to occur, there could be a net negative impact on Australia’s overall military capabilities for deterring potential Chinese aggression.”The Australian government has repeatedly argued it will retain sovereign control of the submarines, despite arguments from the former prime ministers Malcolm Turnbull and Paul Keating that the multi-decade arrangement relies on US support and reduces Australia’s room to move.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionBut the new paper suggested it might be “more cost-effective to pursue a US-Australian division of labor” under which US submarines would perform both American and Australian missions “while Australia invests in other types of military forces”. It pointed to such arrangements between the US and its Nato allies.The paper also mentioned concerns about the impact of a potential accident, even though it said the Australian navy was “a fully professional force that would operate and maintain its Virginia-class boats in a manner fully adhering to the US Navy’s strict and exacting safety, quality-control, and accountability standards”.It said the sale “would unavoidably make another country responsible for preventing an accident” with a US-made submarine and any significant problem “might call into question for third-party observers the safety of all US Navy nuclear-powered ships”.On the other side of the ledger, the paper said supporters could argue that the Aukus deal “would substantially enhance deterrence of potential Chinese aggression by sending a strong signal to China of the collective determination of the United States and Australia, along with the UK, to counter China’s military modernization effort”.“The fact that the United States has never before sold a complete SSN [nuclear-powered submarine] to another country – not even the UK – would underscore the depth of this determination, and thus the strength of the deterrent signal it would send.”Instead of waiting for Australia to build its own submarines, the interim sale of Virginia-class submarines in the 2030s “would substantially accelerate the creation of an Australian force” of nuclear-powered submarines.That would “present China much sooner with a second allied decision-making center” for submarine operations in the Indo-Pacific region, “which would enhance deterrence of potential Chinese aggression by complicating Chinese military planning”. More

A grim-faced Kevin McCarthy clenched the armrest of his seat in the House chamber as he was ousted from the speakership on Tuesday, the knuckles of his right hand turning whiter with every vote that assured he would lose the gavel in a move without precedent in modern US history.The person who had orchestrated his removal, the far-right Republican congressman Matt Gaetz, was seated about 20 feet behind him, at times leaning forward in anticipation and apparent excitement.When it was all over and the office of the House speaker was no longer his, McCarthy slumped back and laughed as several of his allies came up to shake his hand, reassuring him that he had done a good job and it wasn’t his fault, a person familiar with the matter said.The first-ever removal of a speaker in congressional history was a tense political moment that occurred in the same way the speaker is elected – in an alphabetical roll-call vote conducted by the clerk with all the members in the chamber – with moments of high drama.McCarthy’s ouster was the culmination of months of internal Republican party antagonism and an epic power struggle between McCarthy and a small group of hard-right members that had tormented him ever since they ultimately failed to stop his ascent to the speakership in January.By 2pm in Washington, the upper galleries looking down onto the House chamber were packed. The press gallery, running the length of the chamber directly behind the dais, ran out of seats and a row of reporters stood against the back wall.Down on the House floor, the anticipation among the members was focused on the upcoming vote series: the motion to table, the final chance to prevent the McCarthy removal vote from taking place, followed by the motion to vacate, the actual vote to strip McCarthy of his post.The first vote ended up taking longer than expected. A huge number of Democrats swarmed the well of the House floor to vote by hand – holding red cards to indicate their no votes – in an effort to keep the vote open and buy time for their colleagues to get back to the Capitol.But even with a handful of Democrats absent on Tuesday – Cori Bush, the former speaker Nancy Pelosi, Mary Peltola, Emilia Sykes – the writing on the wall was quickly becoming clear for McCarthy after nine Republicans voted to proceed to the second, removal vote.McCarthy had held out hope for some cross-party support and his aides, behind the scenes, frantically called a number of moderate Democrats to see whether they were willing to negotiate some deal in exchange for their support. There appeared to be no takers.The atmosphere for the motion to vacate was nonetheless tense. After an hour of impassioned debate, where Gaetz was forced to speak from the Democratic side of the chamber because McCarthy allies blocked the lecterns on the Republican side, Gaetz moved seats from the front to the back.McCarthy also changed seats and brought himself closer to the front, sitting in the aisle next to an aide. The chamber was silent – unusually quiet because the members normally chat with their seat neighbors – and most of the Republicans stood in the back, near their cloakroom.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionAs the clerk ticked through the roll call, there were murmurs, when the Republican Warren Davidson voted against removing McCarthy after earlier joining Democrats to proceed to the removal vote, and there were gasps, like when the Republican Nancy Mace, in a surprise move, voted to oust McCarthy.(Standing on the east front steps of the Capitol afterwards, Mace explained that she had decided to remove McCarthy because he had not honored his agreement to her on women’s issues such as birth control access and rape kits.)There were also moments of levity: when the far-right Republican congresswoman Lauren Boebert was called upon, she answered “not for the moment” – drawing mockery from both sides of the aisle.Once the number of Republicans against McCarthy climbed to seven, it was clear to McCarthy, Gaetz and everyone else, that his time was up. McCarthy put one hand over his other, palms facing upwards, and looked at the ornate stained-glass eagle on the ceiling of the chamber.As the vote continued towards the inevitable, Gaetz looked relieved. He struck up conversations with his seat neighbors, and played with Boebert’s well-behaved baby boy who was cooing in her arms. A foot away stood the indicted Republican congressman George Santos, watching the pair interact.By the end, when his ouster had been gavelled, a look of resignation was etched on McCarthy’s face. He sat in his seat for some time longer than others. Hours later, when he addressed the Republican conference, McCarthy told his members he would not seek another term as speaker. More

The US House of Representatives voted to remove Kevin McCarthy from the speaker’s chair on Tuesday, making McCarthy the first speaker of the House in US history to be removed from the job.McCarthy, who had only been in the post for nine months, set the wheels in motion for his removal last weekend when he collaborated with Democrats in an effort to fund the government and avoid a shutdown. That move prompted the hard-right congressman Matt Gaetz of Florida to introduce a motion on Monday night to oust him.Despite efforts from McCarthy and his allies to put a stop to Gaetz’s proposal, their motion failed in a vote by 208 to 218. A final vote was held on Tuesday afternoon and saw eight hard-right Republicans joining 208 Democrats to remove McCarthy from his post. The final vote was 216 to 210, in favor of McCarthy getting the boot.Here are five takeaways from the tumultuous event:The House has a new – temporary – speaker: Patrick McHenryAs we’ve noted above, this is the first time in history that a speaker has been removed so the House has entered uncharted territory.According to House rules, McCarthy would have been required to draft a list of names for the clerk of fellow members, in the event of his vacancy. According to Rule I, clause 8, whomever McCarthy put next on that list “shall act as Speaker pro tempore until the election of a Speaker or a Speaker pro tempore”.That person was the North Carolina Republican Patrick McHenry, who has now taken over as House speaker pro tempore, or “for the time being.” McHenry is the chair of the financial services committee, and voted against removing McCarthy.Given McCarthy’s chaotic 15-ballot election in January, it seems all but certain that another multiple ballot election will ensue.This may open the door for Steve ScaliseRepresentative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, currently the No 2 House Republican, has been mentioned as McCarthy’s potential successor. Gaetz notably called out the longtime rival of McCarthy on Monday in a chat with reporters.“I am not going to pass over Steve Scalise just because he has blood cancer,” Gaetz said.Scalise, who is currently undergoing chemotherapy treatment for blood cancer, announced his diagnosis in August, calling the illness “very treatable” and noting that it had been detected early.We’ll likely continue to see a galvanized GaetzGaetz, who had been critical of McCarthy long before the latter took the speakership, lambasted the disgraced politician shortly after his ousting as “a creature of the swamp”.“He has risen to power by collecting special interest money and redistributing that money in exchange for favors,” Gaetz said on Tuesday during an interview on CNN. “We are breaking the fever and we should elect a speaker who is better.”Gaetz doubled down on his vote of confidence for Scalise, telling the network in response to a question of whether he would now nominate Scalise: “I think the world of Steve Scalise. I think he would make a phenomenal speaker.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionGiven that Gaetz used the vote to boot McCarthy as a means to fundraise for himself, he is expected to make more trouble for the House in the coming weeks.The GOP is now in full-fledged ‘chaos’No one likes to live in unprecedented times, but – yet again – here we are. Eight Republicans voting in favor of removing McCarthy illuminates the burgeoning fissures amid the GOP. Those eight included representatives Andy Biggs of Arizona, Ken Buck of Colorado, Tim Burchett of Tennessee, Eli Crane of Arizona, Bob Good of Virginia, Nancy Mace of South Carolina, Matt Rosendale of Montana, and Gaetz.The former Republican vice-president Mike Pence, speaking at an event at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, said: “Chaos is never America’s strength and it’s never a friend of American families that are struggling. I’m deeply disappointed that a handful of Republicans have partnered with Democrats to oust Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the House.”House Rules committee chairman Tom Cole told CNN things are now unclear.“Nobody knows what’s going to happen next, including all the people that voted to vacate … they have no plan. They have no alternative at this point. So it’s just simply a vote for chaos,” Cole said.Neither side of the aisle knows what’s going to happen next with some saying it looks ‘apocalyptic’During his attempt to keep McCarthy as speaker, congressman Tom McClintock of California declared that “if this motion carries, the House will be paralyzed”.“We can expect week after week of fruitless ballots while no other business can be conducted. The Democrats will revel in Republican dysfunction and the public will rightly be repulsed,” McClintock said.He went on to predict that Democrats would then “enlist a rump caucus of Republicans to join a coalition to end the impasse. This House will shift dramatically to the left and will effectively end the Republican House majority that the voters elected in 2022. And this, in turn, will neutralize the only counterweight in our elected government to the woke left control of the Senate and the White House at a time when their … policies are destroying our economy and have opened our borders to invasion.”Lest he hold back at all, McClintock continued ominously: “There are turning points in history whose significance is only realized by the events that they unleash. This is one of those times. We are at the precipice. There are only minutes left to come to our senses and realize the grave danger our country is in at this moment. Dear God, grant us the wisdom to see it and to save our country from it.” More

From 1h agoCalifornia Republican Kevin McCarthy has become the first speaker of the House forced out of the job in US history, after a rebellion by far-right Republicans that was aided by Democrats and fueled by frustration over his approach to government spending and negotiating with Joe Biden.The final vote tally was 216 in favor and 210 against.A congressman since 2007, McCarthy was elected to the speaker’s post in January, but only through a grueling 15 rounds of balloting after the same rightwing Republicans who would later plot his ouster demanded concessions in exchange for their assent. In the months that followed, those lawmakers grew frustrated with the speaker’s approach to governing after he struck deals with Biden and the Democrats to raise the debt ceiling and, this past weekend, keep the federal government open while lawmakers worked out long-term spending plans.That agreement prompted Florida Republican Matt Gaetz to on Monday file a motion to vacate the speaker’s chair. While most House Republicans supported McCarthy, Democrats’ hostility to the speaker, who is an ally of Donald Trump, and a handful of GOP defections sealed his fate.The House must now begin the process of finding a new speaker. Republicans maintain a four-set majority in Congress’s lower chamber.House Democrats will meet at 9am eastern time on Wednesday after the chamber voted to remove Kevin McCarthy from his role as speaker.As we reported earlier, House Republicans are expected to meet at 6.30pm this evening to decide their next steps.Speaker election votes are not expected tonight, according to reports.South Carolina congresswoman Nancy Mace was among the eight Republicans who voted to oust Kevin McCarthy from the speakership.Explaining her decision, Mace said McCarthy “has not lived up to his word on how the House would operate”. She added:
With the current speaker, this chaos will continue. We need a fresh start so we can get back to the people’s business free of these distractions.
House Republicans will convene to meet at 6.30pm to decide their next steps after eight rightwing members joined with Democrats to oust Kevin McCarthy from the post of speaker of the House, according to Punchbowl News:The big question before them is who will they elect to replace McCarthy. One obvious name: Kevin McCarthy. Nothing is stopping him from running for the speakership again and hoping his detractors have changed their minds.But if they refuse, the GOP will have to find someone else.Lots of emotions in the Capitol right now, particularly among the many House Republicans who did not want to see Kevin McCarthy booted as their speaker.Case in point: Patrick McHenry, who is now acting House speaker. The way he gavelled the chamber into recess following the successful expulsion vote says it all:Speaking at an event at Georgetown University in Washington DC, Mike Pence, the former vice-president and current candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, condemned Kevin McCarthy’s overthrow as ‘chaos’.
Chaos is never America’s strength and it’s never a friend of American families that are struggling. I’m deeply disappointed that a handful of Republicans have partnered with Democrats to oust Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the House.
Pence added: “Political performance art in Washington DC does little to address the issues the American people are facing.”Pence represented an Indiana district in the House from 2001 to 2013.Per CNN, Kevin McCarthy had nothing to say as he left the House chamber following the vote that removed him as speaker:Eight Republicans voted to remove Kevin McCarthy, among them Tim Burchett of Tennessee.Burchett said that as he was considering whether or not to support ejecting McCarthy, the then speaker called him and “said something that I thought belittled me and my belief system”, Burchett told CNN.“You know, that pretty much sealed it with me right there. I thought that showed the character of a man,” he continued, but declined to elaborate on what McCarthy said.Asked by anchor Jake Tapper if he would support any of the high-ranking Republicans who have been floated as potential McCarthy replacements – such as Minnesota’s Tom Emmer, Oklahoma’s Tom Cole or Louisiana’s Steve Scalise – Burchett replied “All three of those would be excellent choices, and I think they can do an excellent job. They’re honorable men.”“They’ve never openly mocked me anyway,” he added.North Carolina Republican Patrick McHenry has taken over as House speaker pro tempore following Kevin McCarthy’s removal from the leadership role in Congress’s lower chamber moments ago.Per House rules, McCarthy submitted to the chamber’s clerk a list of lawmakers who would take over if his seat becomes vacant, of which McHenry was apparently first.McHenry is the chair of the financial services committee, and voted against removing McCarthy. After picking up the gavel, he recessed the House.Some sharp intakes of breath in the chamber as Kevin McCarthy was removed.McCarthy threw his head back and chuckled – perhaps the only thing he could do – as a couple of members walked over to shake his hand. The upper section of the gallery emptied pretty quickly as soon as the vote to remove was gavelled.California Republican Kevin McCarthy has become the first speaker of the House forced out of the job in US history, after a rebellion by far-right Republicans that was aided by Democrats and fueled by frustration over his approach to government spending and negotiating with Joe Biden.The final vote tally was 216 in favor and 210 against.A congressman since 2007, McCarthy was elected to the speaker’s post in January, but only through a grueling 15 rounds of balloting after the same rightwing Republicans who would later plot his ouster demanded concessions in exchange for their assent. In the months that followed, those lawmakers grew frustrated with the speaker’s approach to governing after he struck deals with Biden and the Democrats to raise the debt ceiling and, this past weekend, keep the federal government open while lawmakers worked out long-term spending plans.That agreement prompted Florida Republican Matt Gaetz to on Monday file a motion to vacate the speaker’s chair. While most House Republicans supported McCarthy, Democrats’ hostility to the speaker, who is an ally of Donald Trump, and a handful of GOP defections sealed his fate.The House must now begin the process of finding a new speaker. Republicans maintain a four-set majority in Congress’s lower chamber.The vote is nearly over.The motion to vacate is currently leading with 216 in favor, and 207 opposed. Kevin McCarthy is on course to lose his position as speaker of the House.Kevin McCarthy looks resigned as he sits in his chair with his palms over each other in his lap.The number of Republicans voting for his ouster just crossed eight members – likely enough to end his speakership.Matt Gaetz, who filed the motion to remove him as speaker, is sitting towards the back of the chamber, also in an aisle seat, leaning forward in his chair and talking to a few members sitting around him.Standing near Gaetz is George Santos, the Republican congressman who is an admitted fabulist and also facing a federal indictment. It seems like he’s eavesdropping on Gaetz’s conversation.Seven Republicans have now voted to remove Kevin McCarthy as speaker.Assuming all Democrats vote for his ouster, McCarthy is on track to become the first House speaker in American history ejected from the job.Ohio Republican Warren Davidson joined with Democrats to vote for proceeding with the vote to remove Kevin McCarthy as speaker.But, interestingly, he just voted against actually removing McCarthy.I’m standing in the House press gallery, which is on the second level above the dais, and currently packed with reporters.The chamber feels tense. None of the lawmakers are moving around, and are barely speaking except to call out their votes. Kevin McCarthy is sitting three rows in from the well, in an aisle seat. He seems to be gripping the arm rest quite tightly with his right hand.Most of the rest of the Republican conference is standing at the back of the chamber.So far, about 120 votes have been cast, and the motion to vacate has a small lead.The House is now voting on whether to remove Kevin McCarthy as speaker. Lawmakers will be called to vote in alphabetical order, similarly to how it was done in January, when he was elected to the post.About an hour ago, a motion to block the removal motion was defeated with 218 votes. That amount of support would also be enough to remove McCarthy as speaker, assuming no lawmakers change their minds.Should the motion to vacate be successful, McCarthy will become the first speaker of the House removed from his post in US history.As Republicans debate his fate on the House floor, NBC News reports that Kevin McCarthy’s office has reached out to some moderate Democrats to ask them to vote to keep him as speaker.There is no indication they are willing to oblige:If Democrats were to save McCarthy, he would likely have had to make substantial concessions to Joe Biden’s allies. One can only imagine what those would have been, but ending the impeachment inquiry would probably have been one of them. More

All it took was a single-page resolution for the congressman Matt Gaetz, a hard-right Republican from Florida, to set in motion a move unprecedented in Congressional history: the ousting of a House speaker.On Tuesday, a handful of conservative rebels joined Gaetz in voting to depose Kevin McCarthy, the Republican speaker. By a vote of 216-210, the effort succeeded, plunging the Republican-controlled House once again into chaos and cementing Gaetz’s position as one of Capitol Hill’s chief antagonists.It has also brought renewed media attention to a controversial politician who thrives on it.“Florida Man. Built for Battle,” reads Gaetz’s bio on X, formerly Twitter.Gaetz followed his father into politics more than two decades ago. After serving in the Florida statehouse, Gaetz was elected in 2016 to represent a ruby-red chunk of the Florida panhandle.Since his arrival in Washington, the pompadoured lawmaker has built a political brand as a far-right provocateur, courting controversy seemingly as a matter of course.Like Donald Trump, to whom he is fiercely loyal, Gaetz is more interested in sparring with political foes than in the dry business of governance, according to his critics. On Capitol Hill, he has repeatedly disrupted House proceedings, including once barging into a secure facility where Democrats were holding a deposition hearing.In 2018, he was condemned for inviting a Holocaust denier to Trump’s State of the Union address. A year later, he hired a speechwriter who had left the Trump administration after speaking at a conference that regularly attracts white nationalists.Months after the January 6 attack on the Capitol, Gaetz embarked on an “America First” tour with Marjorie Taylor Greene, the far-right Georgia congresswoman, in which they amplified the former president’s false claims of fraud in the 2020 election. He also continued to attack Republicans critical of Trump, using language that reportedly alarmed McCarthy, who feared the lawmakers’ words could incite violence.Earlier this year, Gaetz led the bid to block McCarthy from becoming speaker, relenting on the 15th round of balloting after McCarthy consented to concessions. Among promises McCarthy made to hard-right lawmakers was to allow any member to bring a motion to remove the speaker from the leadership position.Gaetz and other far-right members threatened to deploy the tactic if McCarthy relied on Democratic votes to pass any spending legislation, as he did over the weekend to narrowly avert a government shutdown. On Monday, Gaetz filed the motion that resulted in McCarthy’s removal.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionGaetz has argued that he is acting in the interest of the American people and Republican voters who want McCarthy to stand up to the president, even if that means risking a debt default or a government shutdown.McCarthy has charged that Gaetz was motivated by vengeance after McCarthy declined to interfere in a congressional investigation into Gaetz’s conduct. Over the past two years, the House ethics committee has been leading an inquiry into allegations of sexual misconduct, including sex trafficking and sex with a minor, illicit drug use and misuse of campaign funds, among others.In February, the justice department declined to bring charges against Gaetz. Gaetz maintained his innocence throughout.“I am the most investigated man in the United States Congress,” Gaetz told reporters on Monday, insinuating that the inquiry was an effort to smear him. “It seems that the ethics committee’s interest in me waxes and wanes based on my relationship with the speaker.”In recent months, speculation has swirled that Gaetz has his sights set on higher office. About his future political ambitions, the Florida congressman was dismissive of both the suggestion he planned to run for governor or the US Senate. “If I want to go to a retirement community,” the 41-year-old told reporters, “I’m going to The Villages, not the United States Senate.” More

The Republican US House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, has been removed from office after a move by members of his own party to oust him because he passed a stopgap funding measure with Democratic support to avoid a government shutdown.The end of his speakership came on Tuesday after representative Matt Gaetz, a hardline Republican lawmaker, filed what is called the “motion to vacate”.Here’s a quick look at what a motion to vacate is and how it works.What is a motion to vacate?The motion to vacate is the House’s procedure to remove its speaker. The chamber’s current rules allow any one member, Democrat or Republican, to introduce the motion. If it is introduced as a “privileged” resolution, the House must consider it at some point, although it could be delayed with procedural votes.It only needs a simple majority to pass. The motion to vacate passed with 216 to 210 votes.How can one member do this?McCarthy endured a brutal 15 rounds of voting in January before being elected as speaker, during which he agreed to multiple concessions increasing the power of Republican hardliners.One was the decision to allow just one member to put forward a motion to vacate, which meant that hardliners could threaten McCarthy’s speakership at any time.This was a change from the rules in place under his Democratic predecessor, Nancy Pelosi, when a majority of one party needed to support a motion to vacate to bring it to the floor.Who was behind the push to oust McCarthy?The Republican representative Gaetz, a firebrand from Florida and perpetual thorn in McCarthy’s side, had repeatedly threatened to file a motion to vacate. The speaker has been unfazed. In a 14 September closed-door meeting of House Republicans, McCarthy dared Gaetz to bring a motion to the floor.Has the motion to vacate been used before?The motion was first used in 1910, when the Republican speaker Joseph Cannon put forward the motion himself to force detractors in his own party to decide whether they supported him or not, according to the House Archives. The motion failed.In 1997 the Republican speaker Newt Gingrich was threatened with a motion to vacate. Although he managed to tamp down resistance and avoid an actual resolution being filed, he resigned in 1998 after disappointing results in the midterm elections that year.In 2015 Republican the representative Mark Meadows filed a motion to vacate against the Republican speaker John Boehner. It did not come to a vote, but Boehner resigned a few months later, citing the challenges of managing a burgeoning hardline conservative faction of his party.McCarthy has become the first House speaker in US history to have been removed from office. More

Steve Scalise, the Louisiana Republican who some in his party reportedly want to elect as speaker of the US House of Representatives after the stunning and historic removal of Kevin McCarthy, was once reported to have called himself “David Duke without the baggage”.Duke, 73, is a former Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, an avowed white supremacist who has run for Louisiana governor, the US House and Senate and for president and who in 2003 was sentenced to 15 months in jail for mail and tax fraud.Scalise, now 57, was elected to Congress in 2008. He became Republican House whip in 2014 and was elected majority leader in 2022, as a hardline conservative acceptable to the far right of his party, which has now successfully rebelled against McCarthy.Ahead of McCarthy’s removal, Scalise implored his fellow Republicans “to keep doing this work that we were sent to do” rather than focus on ejecting the speaker.“This isn’t the time to slow that process down,” said Scalise, denying interest in the speakership.Immediately after the vote to remove McCarthy, however, the ringleader of the motion to vacate, Matt Gaetz of Florida, used his first remarks to say Scalise would be “a phenomenal speaker”. He also said Tom Emmer of Minnesota or Tom Cole of Oklahoma might be good choices.The speakership may offer Scalise a tempting prize: if he is elevated into the role, he will become the highest-ranking member of Congress ever to come from Louisiana.His fellow Louisianan, Duke, last made national headlines when he supported Donald Trump for president in 2016 – support Trump was slow to disavow.Two years before that, Scalise ran into controversy, and his remark about Duke surfaced, after a blogger revealed Scalise’s attendance at a white supremacist conference organised by Duke in 2002.Scalise, whose district includes a large suburban area of New Orleans, said he had been seeking “support for legislation that focused on cutting wasteful state spending, eliminating government corruption and stopping tax hikes”, but “wholeheartedly condemn[ed]” the views of the group concerned.He also said attending the conference “was a mistake I regret”, as he “emphatically oppose[d] the divisive racial and religious views that groups like these hold”.Citing his Catholicism, Scalise said “these groups hold views that are vehemently opposed to my own personal faith, and I reject that kind of hateful bigotry. Those who know me best know I have always been passionate about helping, serving and fighting for every family that I represent. And I will continue to do so.”Duke, however, told the Washington Post: “Scalise would communicate a lot with my campaign manager, Kenny Knight. That is why he was invited and why he would come. Kenny knew Scalise, Scalise knew Kenny. They were friendly.”That wasn’t the end of it. The controversy deepened when Stephanie Grace, a Louisiana politics reporter and columnist, told the New York Times that at the start of Scalise’s legislative career, while “explaining his politics”, he told her “he was like David Duke without the baggage”.Grace said she thought Scalise had “meant he supported the same policy ideas as David Duke, but he wasn’t David Duke, that he didn’t have the same feelings about certain people as David Duke did”.Scalise did not comment on Grace’s remarks. But Chuck Kleckley, the Republican speaker of the Louisiana state house at the time, told the paper comparisons between Scalise and the Klan leader were “not fair to Steve at all”.Nonetheless, the Duke controversy has followed Scalise throughout a career in Republican leadership which has seen him survive being seriously wounded in a mass shooting at congressional baseball practice, in 2017; become one of five Louisiana Congress members to vote against certifying some election results hours after the deadly Capitol attack of 6 January 2021; become majority leader in 2022; and, in August this year, announce a cancer diagnosis.The 2017 shooting was an assassination attempt. The gunman, a leftist extremist who was killed by law enforcement, legally bought the rifle used to shoot Scalise and three others despite a history of run-ins with police.Despite that, through legislation he has sponsored and co-sponsored, Scalise has staunchly advocated to keep guns as accessible to the public as possible, citing the right to bear arms enshrined in the US constitution’s second amendment.In the aftermath of his own shooting, Scalise told reporters: “I was a strong supporter of the second amendment before the shooting and, frankly, as ardent as ever after the shooting in part because I was saved by people who had guns.”Last month, discussing his recent diagnosis of multiple myeloma, Scalise said aggressive treatment meant his outlook was improving.Should Scalise eventually secure the speaker’s gavel, he will surpass the New Orleans Democrat Hale Boggs as the most powerful member of Congress ever to come from the state. Boggs was House majority leader before his plane disappeared over Alaska in 1972. More

After leading a successful effort to avoid a government shutdown over the weekend, Kevin McCarthy has been removed from his role as US House speaker, ousted by hard-right members of his Republican party less than a year after his election.The ouster of McCarthy represents the first time in US history that a speaker of the House has been removed from office, marking an ignominious end to a short and fraught tenure.The vote to oust McCarthy followed a motion to vacate the chair from the Florida Republican congressman Matt Gaetz. After McCarthy’s Republican allies failed to block the motion from moving forward, a final vote was held on Tuesday afternoon. Eight hard-right Republicans joined 208 Democrats in supporting McCarthy’s removal, as 210 Republicans tried and failed to keep the speaker in place. McCarthy needed a simple majority of voting members to keep his gavel but failed to cross that threshold.“The resolution is adopted,” congressman Steve Womack, the Arkansas Republican who presided over the session, announced after the vote. “The office of speaker of the House of the United States House of Representatives is hereby declared vacant.”Following the declaration, congressman Patrick McHenry, a North Carolina Republican, was designated by McCarthy as the acting speaker until a new House leader is elected. Upon taking the gavel, McHenry quickly called for a recess.“In the opinion of the chair, prior to proceeding to the election of a speaker, it will be prudent to first recess for the relative caucus and conferences to meet and discuss the path forward,” McHenry said.McCarthy’s removal capped a tumultuous nine months in the House, defined by clashes between the speaker and the hard-right flank of his conference. Despite his repeated efforts to appease them, his willingness to collaborate with Democrats to prevent economic chaos sealed his fate. With the narrowest of majorities in the House, Republicans now face the unenviable task of electing a leader who can win nearly unanimous support across a deeply divided conference.Gaetz sought McCarthy’s removal after the speaker worked with House Democrats to pass a stopgap spending bill, known as a continuing resolution, to extend government funding through 17 November. Gaetz also accused McCarthy of cutting a “secret side deal” with Joe Biden on providing additional funding to Ukraine, which has become a source of outrage on the right. McCarthy denied the existence of any secret deal.The House and the US Senate passed the stopgap bill with overwhelming bipartisan majorities, averting a shutdown that could have left hundreds of thousands of federal workers without pay for an extended period.Tuesday’s vote was the first to remove a House speaker in more than 100 years and the first successful such vote in American history. Other recent House speakers, including former Republican leader John Boehner, had previously been threatened with a motion to vacate but never had to endure a full effort to remove them.The referendum starkly illustrated McCarthy’s tenuous grasp on the gavel since needing 15 rounds of voting to secure the House speakership in January.McCarthy has never won the support of many Republicans to his right. Additionally, many of his fellow Republicans felt McCarthy did not secure their side sufficient concessions in the deal that averted the shutdown.“The speaker fought through 15 votes in January to become speaker, but was only willing to fight through one failed [continuing resolution] before surrendering to the Democrats on Saturday,” Bob Good, a Republican congressman from Virginia, said in a floor speech on Tuesday. “We need a speaker who will fight for something, anything besides just staying or becoming speaker.”Before McCarthy learned his fate Tuesday, the House Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries, indicated his caucus would not help McCarthy save his job. In the end, every present House Democrat voted in favor of ousting McCarthy.“House Democrats remain willing to find common ground on an enlightened path forward. Unfortunately, our extreme Republican colleagues have shown no willingness to do the same,” Jeffries said in a “Dear Colleague” letter sent Tuesday. “Given their unwillingness to break from [Make America Great Again] extremism in an authentic and comprehensive manner, House Democratic leadership will vote yes on the pending Republican Motion to Vacate the Chair.”With the speaker removed, all work in the House will grind to a halt until a new leader is elected. More