House voting on whether to consider Kevin McCarthy’s removal

The Republican-led House is voting whether to move forward with consideration of a resolution brought by hard-right members of the party to oust Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) as speaker. If a motion to table the resolution succeeds, McCarthy will keep his position, at least for now. If the motion fails, he will be subject to a separate vote on whether to remove him from the speaker’s role.

More Republicans have voted not to table the motion than GOP leadership was expecting. A private whip count had seven, maybe eight voting with Democrats to table.

Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is standing at his desk, but he is not looking at the scoreboard that announces the vote count. His chief of staff is standing next to him periodically looking at the vote count above.

Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), outside the House floor, said other Republicans are not trying to change his mind about his decision to vote to remove Kevin McCarthy. “They understand where I’m at. Some of them said they wish they could be with me,” Burchett said.