The United States House of Representatives Speaker, Kevin McCarthy, has been impeached.
McCarthy lost the fight for his political life after lawmakers decided to oust the California Republican from the speakership.
It is the first time in U.S. history that a speaker of the House has been fired.
According to USA Today, the rebellion, led by conservative hardliner Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., roiled the House in chaos. The move to oust McCarthy – known as a motion to vacate – had the support of a handful of hard-right lawmakers who have expressed anger at McCarthy for working with Democrats to avert a government shutdown.
With House Republicans’ razor-thin majority, McCarthy’s fate appeared to fall in the hands of Democrats, who huddled in an extended closed-door meeting Tuesday morning to discuss strategy but ultimately decided not to save McCarthy.
“House Democrats will continue to put people over politics. We are ready to find bipartisan common ground,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
The onus, Jeffries said, was on House Republicans to save McCarthy.