Chaos in US as House ousts speaker in historic vote
The US House of Representatives has ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy from his job in a historic vote.
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The US House of Representatives has ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy from his job in a historic vote.
McCarthy's party controls the chamber by a narrow 221-212 majority, and it would take as few as five Republican defections to threaten his hold on power if all Democrats also voted against him.
McHenry, 47, the congenial chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, will preside over deliberations on a new speaker.
Just hours after McCarthy signaled that he had won over some of the holdouts and was ready to move forward, a handful of Republicans broke with their party to oppose the routine measure that would allow the military appropriations bill to come to the House floor for debate, joining with Democrats to defeat it.
Action on the floor stalled as Speaker Kevin McCarthy struggled for votes to bring spending bills up for debate and remained stalemated with right-wing members.