Interim House Speaker kicks Pelosi out of office, to 're-assign' soon

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Axios
4 Oct 2023 10:10
1 Shares

Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi's staff claim that the House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries' office staff volunteered to help Pelosi vacate her office in the Capitol.

Rep. Patrick McHenry speaks to members of the media at the US Capitol on October 3, 2023. (AFP)

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi just got the boot right after Rep. Patrick McHenry replaced ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy, becoming interim speaker and ordering her to move out of her Capitol office.

Pelosi's staff received an email an hour and a half after McHenry replaced McCarthy, asking them to "vacate the space tomorrow," after which the office locks will be changed, according to a copy obtained by Axios. The House Administration Committee GOP aides stated that McHenry "is going to re-assign" the office.

Pelosi, a vocal critic of McCarthy, called the decision a "sharp departure from tradition," as she missed the vote removing McCarthy due to attending the funeral of the late Senator Dianne Feinstein in San Fransisco on Tuesday.

According to her office, staffers from House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries' office volunteered to help vacate.

In a statement, Pelosi expressed: "With all of the important decisions that the new Republican Leadership must address, which we are all eagerly awaiting, one of the first actions taken by the new Speaker Pro Tempore was to order me to immediately vacate my office in the Capitol."

She added: "This eviction is a sharp departure from tradition. As Speaker, I gave former Speaker Hastert a significantly larger suite of offices for as long as he wished."

Breaking the 234-year record

For the first time in its 234-year history, the House backed a resolution "to vacate the office of the speaker" with a 216-210 vote setting the stage for an unprecedented contest to replace McCarthy a year before the presidential election.

The ouster was supported by only a handful of right-wing Republican hardliners. However, the House was almost evenly divided and with Democrats joining eight rebel Republicans rather than riding to McCarthy's rescue, he had no way to survive. No other speaker has been ousted in US history.

Florida conservative Matt Gaetz, who forced the removal vote, gambled that he could oust the 55th speaker of the House of Representatives with just a few Republicans.

"The reason Kevin McCarthy went down today is because nobody trusts Kevin McCarthy," he added after the vote. "Kevin McCarthy has made multiple contradictory promises, and when they all came due, he lost."

Meanwhile, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise is working behind the scenes to try grabbing McCarthy's seat as House Speaker, Fox News reported on Tuesday, citing close sources.

Ahead of a possible vote on Wednesday, Scalise has been making calls behind the scenes in a bid to become the next House Speaker, the report added.

Earlier, Gaetz suggested to reporters that either Scalise or US Congressman Tom Emmer would make good speakers, adding that he spoke with Emmer, but declined to disclose the content of their conversation.

He added that he would like to hear from Scalise about a prospective speaker candidacy before nominating him, but Scalise is the "type of person" Gaetz could see himself supporting.