Pelosi Says She Never Promised Dem Support in McCarthy Speaker Vote

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said during a recent interview that she never promised ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., the support of House Democrats to keep him in the chair.

“Not really. I had no promise to him,” The Hill reported the former speaker saying during the interview. “Our Democratic members made their decision. If you don’t respect the institution, then don’t expect us to bail you out.”

Eight Republicans joined all the House Democrats on Tuesday to kick McCarthy out of the speaker’s position 216-210, marking the first time in United States history a speaker has been removed from the seat, CBS News reported.

Florida’s Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz brought the motion to vacate the chair to the floor because he said McCarthy broke promises he made when he won the job in January after 15 rounds of voting.

Gaetz, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, and 19 other Republicans extracted a laundry list of concessions from McCarthy before giving him the 218 votes he needed to win the speakership, including a change to House rules that allow just a single member to bring the motion to the floor for a vote.

Gaetz and other Republicans were frustrated with McCarthy most recently for cutting a deal with Democrats to keep the government funded through Nov. 17 by keeping current spending levels without making cuts Gaetz and the others were pushing for.

After the vote, Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., took over as an interim speaker until the chamber votes someone new to the position, CNN reported.

McHenry wasted little time flexing his muscle in the albeit limited role, by evicting Pelosi and former House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., from their Capitol office spaces, reportedly at the behest of McCarthy, who will now take control of those spaces, the report said.

“Look the deal is that the office that Pelosi is in right now is the office of the preceding speaker,” GOP Rep. Garret Graves of Louisiana told reporters. “Speaker Pelosi and other Democrats determined that they wanted a new … speaker, and it’s Kevin McCarthy. So, he’s getting the office.”

Pelosi, who was not in Washington at the time of McHenry’s announcement, said she could not retrieve her belongings from the office.

“With all of the important decisions that the new Republican Leadership must address, which we are all eagerly awaiting, one of the first actions taken by the new Speaker Pro Tempore was to order me to immediately vacate my office in the Capitol,” the California Democrat said in a statement. “Sadly, because I am in California to mourn the loss of and pay tribute to my dear friend Dianne Feinstein, I am unable to retrieve my belongings at this time.”