GOP hardliners revolt over Kevin McCarthy’s debt limit deal

By Manu Raju, Melanie Zanona and Morgan Rimmer | CNN

A bloc of Republican hardliners blindsided GOP leaders on Tuesday and derailed two bills, a move they said was retaliation for House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s deal with President Joe Biden to suspend the national debt limit.

The revolt underscored the fragility of McCarthy’s narrow majority and the lingering tensions with the right-wing of his conference over the debt deal. But the protest also indicated that the members have not yet decided on whether to call for a vote ousting McCarthy from the speakership, something that would rip apart the House GOP and send the chamber into chaos.

For now, the conservatives have settled on a strategy to scramble McCarthy’s legislative agenda until they believe he will listen to their list of demands. And they argue that McCarthy blatantly violated a deal he cut in January to assume the speakership on the 15th ballot, though all the details of that agreement were never publicly released and the speaker insists he’s lived up to those promises.

“Today we took down the rule because we’re frustrated at the way this place is operating,” Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican, told reporters on the steps of the Capitol. “We took a stand in January to end the era of the imperial speakership. We’re concerned that the fundamental commitments that allowed Kevin McCarthy to assume the speakership have been violated as a consequence of the debt limit deal, and, you know, the answer for us is to reassert House conservatives as the appropriate coalition partner for our leadership, instead of them making common cause with Democrats.”

The procedural vote failed on a 206-220, effectively sinking legislation to ban the prohibition of gas stoves and to impose new congressional oversight on federal rules. A procedural vote – known as a House rule, which sets parameters for floor debate – typically passes with the support of the majority party. The last time a rule failed in the chamber was in 2002.

It was unclear how long the conservatives planned to mount the protest or what their next steps were. They said they wanted McCarthy to ensure that the next round of funding bills rolls back domestic funding to 2022 spending levels, a position resisted by Democrats and some in their own party. And some of the Republican critics said they were angry that the leadership seemed to scuttle legislation by Rep. Andrew Clyde, believing it was retaliation for the Georgia Republican’s opposition to the debt ceiling deal, though the leadership denied that charge.

All of which speaks to the growing tension between McCarthy and his allies and the small bloc of hardliners vowing to make his speakership more difficult. It takes just five Republicans to derail an agenda that moves along party lines in the narrowly divided chamber.

The battle spilled out behind closed doors earlier in the day on Tuesday as well – with McCarthy allies criticizing their colleagues for trying to sink the rule on the debt limit bill last week and threatening to do it again.

“A minority in the conference thinks we can demand and get what we want despite having a Democrat president and Democrat-run Senate,” said Rep. Don Bacon, a Nebraska Republican. “We got the best deal possible in divided government. This is how James Madison designed it. The speaker stressed today we got the best deal possible with largest spending cut in history. It’s time to move forward and concentrate on the ‘next play.’”

The conservatives though are undeterred.

“We also will enforce the agreement that we reached in January, under which, Kevin McCarthy assumed the speakership,” said Rep. Dan Bishop of North Carolina. “It will be performed and will reforge Republican unity, because as you’re seeing right now, the majority cannot function without unity. And so to pull a pin on the grenade and rolling them under the tent of Republican unity, as was done last year in the debt ceiling – last week.”

Asked if they would continue to scuttle the agenda, the conservatives would not say.