The eight Republican congressmen who brought down McCarthy

The historic removal of Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House of Representatives last Tuesday was made possible by eight Republican congressmen. Seven conservative legislators joined Matt Gaetz's initiative to behead a member of their own party, accusing him of being untrustworthy, not keeping his word and making a deal with the Democrats. Among those who voted "yes" to bring down the speaker, are four of the five original members of Never Kevin, (Gaetz, Andy Biggs, Matt Rosendale and Bob Good), Eli Crane, who signed a letter against McCarthy's investiture with eight other representatives in January, who were joined by three others who voted in favor of the conservative candidate in the elections (Ken Buck, Tim Burchett and Nancy Mace).

Matt Gaetz

The representative from Florida is one of the men most hated by his party colleagues in the Capitol right now. His opposition to McCarthy from minute zero reached its zenith the day the speaker announced the opening of the impeachment process against President Biden, when Gaetz threatened for the first time to present the motion of censure. Something that he finally fulfilled after the approval of the legislation that temporarily avoided the government shutdown. In the last few hours, Gaetz re-uploaded a video of his speech on the first day of voting recommending Jim Jordan.

After the vote, McCarthy again insisted that Gaetz's reasons for taking him down were purely personal. The former speaker added that the Florida congressman does not forgive him for refusing to intervene on his behalf in the investigation that the Ethics Committee opened against him.

Andy Biggs

An original member of Never Kevin, Biggs, has always been critical of McCarthy's spokesperson. In RRSS he justified his vote because "President McCarthy has not proven to be an effective leader who changes the status quo. He has gone against many of the promises he made in January and can no longer be trusted at the head of the party."

Bob Good

He was also part of the group that opposed McCarthy's appointment from the beginning. In his speech at the plenary session , Wood stressed that "the American people need a president who will fight to keep the promises Republicans made to get the majority, not someone who cuts fiscally irresponsible deals that get more Democrat than Republicans votes."

Matt Rosendale

The last of the five Never Kevin to endorse Gaetz ( Ralph Norman, the fifth member of the group voted to save McCarthy). Rosendale also justified his decision to unseat the House Speaker for his broken promises and accused him of "failed leadership."

McCarthy addressed harsh words to this congressman in his farewell to the media, accusing him of "praying" that the Republicans would not achieve a large victory in the 2022 midterms. "Matt Rosendale. He goes to mass every day. But you know what he said his prayer was all last year? That Republicans didn’t have a big victory. That they had a narrow victory, he noted.

Eli Crane

Despite not being part of the initial opponents, Crane did join the movement against McCarthy before the vote in a letter in which eight members of the Freedom Caucus positioned themselves against the then leader of the Republicans in Congress. In the days before the motion, the Arizona legislator made it clear on social media that he will support Gaetz's initiative.

Ken Buck

Buck voted for McCarthy's inauguration from the first occasion in which the Chamber elected the new speaker. However, McCarthy's pacts with the Democrats to increase the spending ceiling and avoid a government shutdown led the veteran congressman to turn his back on the president.

Tim Burchett

He also backed McCarthy to raise the bar in the January vote. However, he voted in favor of his friend's impeachment "for the good of the American people." According to Burchett, "we need leadership that will take real action to manage our country's serious financial crisis and steer us in a better direction."

Nancy Mace

The only woman in the group, and the vote that seems to have stung the former speaker the most, based on his statements against her at the end of the vote. Although Mace voted in favor of handing over the reward to McCarthy from the beginning, the speakers "broken promises" caused her to vote for his removal.

The words hurt McCarthy, who accused the congresswoman of lying: "I called her chief of staff … I said, ‘Can you please tell me, I don’t understand? Where have I not kept my word?’ The Chief of staff said, ‘You have kept your word 100%'. I bite my lip, I let people say things that are not true. But it’s not right. It is not right. Her chief of staff told all of us we have kept every single one of our words. And he said he’s told her that, too."