House ousts McCarthy as speaker in historic vote

The US House of Representatives voted on Tuesday to oust Kevin McCarthy as speaker - a historic moment that threatens to plunge House Republicans even further into chaos and turmoil.

The House will now need to elect a new speaker, but there is no clear alternative who would have the support needed to win the gavel. McCarthy's political future hangs in the balance and it remains to be seen whether he will seek to win back the speakership. No House speaker has ever before been ousted through the passage of a resolution to remove them.

Immediately following the vote, GOP Rep. Patrick McHenry, a top McCarthy ally, was named interim speaker and the House went into recess as Republicans scramble to find a path forward.

The House GOP will have a conference meeting Tuesday evening, according to sources, though it's not officially scheduled yet. Sources also said speaker election votes are not expected tonight.

The fight over the speakership marks a major escalation in tensions for a House GOP conference that has been mired in infighting - and it comes just days after McCarthy successfully engineered a last-minute bipartisan effort to avert a government shutdown.

The effort to oust the speaker was led by GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz and comes as a bloc of hardline conservatives have continued to rebel against McCarthy, voting against key priorities of GOP leadership and repeatedly throwing up roadblocks to the speaker's agenda.

The vote was 216 to 210 with eight Republicans voting to remove McCarthy from the speakership. The Republicans voting to oust McCarthy as speaker were: Gaetz, Eli Crane and Andy Biggs of Arizona, Ken Buck of Colorado, Tim Burchett of Tennessee, Bob Good of Virginia, Nancy Mace of South Carolina and Matt Rosendale of Montana.