On Thursday, Kevin McCarthy fulfilled his final promise to conservatives when he had the full House vote to remove Rep. Ilhan Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
That was a great honor for the promise he made after the Democrats – and 11 Republicans – voted to remove Marjorie Taylor Greene from their committees. Mr. McCarthy has decided to make her his most invincible co-sponsor, with The New York Times reporting last month that he said “I will never leave that woman.”
But now comes the hard part: This week, he had his first meeting with President Joe Biden about the debt limit. But he has made so many concessions to conservatives that he has made his negotiating job almost impossible.
His decision Mr. Omar – as well as Representatives Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell of the House Intelligence Committee – also fulfilled his promise to Republicans after Democrats voted to censure and remove from their committees Representative Paul Gosar of Arizona .
That punishment came when he posted a video of a character with his own head killing a character with the head of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. In particular, Mr. Gosar voted against making Mr. McCarthy speaker for the first 12 rounds and Mr. Gosar did not come out until Mr. McCarthy made numerous concessions to conservatives.
Among those concessions was allowing three conservatives – including Reps. Chip Roy and Ralph Norman, who initially opposed his speech – to sit on the powerful House Rules Committee, which controls what legislation can be passed. put on the floor. It also lowered the threshold for a motion to oust the chairman, meaning any individual member can file a motion to remove Mr McCarthy.
As The Rising As reported, Mr. McCarthy saw the destruction of both House conservatives John Boehner and Paul Ryan and made a conscious decision to align himself with the far right of the caucus. He has done this by aligning himself with figures such as Jim Jordan, who has previously clashed with Republican leadership, and Mr Roy who, as Senator Ted Cruz’s chief of staff, helped orchestrate the 2013 government shutdown .
But debt limit negotiations were precisely the kinds of negotiations that Mr. Ryan and Mr. Boehner had canceled. And all that goodwill he’s built up with conservatives could completely evaporate if they don’t think his negotiations took away enough cuts from the Biden administration.
It is noteworthy that all Democrats, even those who strongly disagreed with Ms. Omar’s views about Israel and thought they were anti-Semitic, stood behind her and voted against the House resolution. That could serve as an unlikely precursor to picking off even the most conservative Democrats if he makes sharp spending cuts in exchange for an increase in the debt limit.
In addition, he has given them the tools to block a resolution to raise the debt limit by placing conservatives on Rules and has given them a loaded gun with the intention of leaving the chair.