Dem
51
GOP
49
While Matt Gaetz knows how to file a motion to vacate the chair, that only works when there is a chair. There isn't one now, only a speaker pro tem (Patrick McHenry, R-NC). Gaetz doesn't like him and is already criticizing him. On Newsmax Tuesday evening, Gaetz said: "I do have to offer some pretty sharp criticism of the new pro tem of the House, Patrick McHenry. We met tonight, and he sent us home until Tuesday of next week." Gaetz wants to start the voting for a new speaker right now. No need to wait a week and see if anyone can cobble together 218 votes. Better to do it all in public and humiliate the Republican Party some more.
Then Gaetz went on and said: "They've got to go do a week of hand-wringing and bedwetting over the fact that Kevin McCarthy isn't Speaker anymore. This institution is about more than one man." Actually, Gaetz seems to think it is about one man: Matt Gaetz.
Gaetz hasn't said who he will vote for come next week when the voting starts, but he is already rubbing a lot of his House colleagues the wrong way. Some of them may vote against his preferred candidate, just to take Gaetz down a peg or two. It's bad enough when the Republicans are split on policy, but when who hates whom is also a factor, it might be pretty hard for anyone to get to 218. (V)