House Republicans have begun their revenge against Democrats for helping oust Kevin McCarthy as speaker by kicking top members of that party out of the private offices in the Capitol.
Steny Hoyer, the former Democratic leader who is highly liked and respected in his party, lost his office in the Capitol on Wednesday morning – the morning after Republicans kicked Nancy Pelosi out of her digs.
Democratic Rep. Annie Kuster of New Hampshire called the move ‘petty.’
‘I did hear about that pettiness and frankly, my understanding is that started with Kevin McCarthy on the way out the door. I certainly hope the mood improves,’ she told CNN.
Speaker Pro Temp Patrick McHenry gave the orders shortly after he took over as speaker. The majority party has all the power on Capitol Hill, controling office space and meeting rooms.
Steny Hoyer, a former member of Democratic leadership, lost his Capitol office on Wednesday as Republicans extracted revenge on Democrats
All signs of McCarty’s tenure were being removed on Wednesday. The name plate over the speaker’s office, which read Kevin McCarthy, was removed. McCarthy was the shortest-serving speaker since 1875, and the only one in US history to be voted out of leadership by fellow members.
Pelosi blasted the her eviction as a ‘sharp departure from tradition.’
Traditionally former speakers are given office space in the Capitol. Former Republican speaker John Boehner has such office space.
Pelosi will retain her congressional office in the Canon House Office Building. But office space in the House side of the Capitol is at a premium and it’s a sign of power to have assigned space there.
‘Office space doesn’t matter to me, but it seems to be important to them,’ she said. ‘Now that the new Republican Leadership has settled this important matter, let’s hope they get to work on what’s truly important for the American people.’
Pelosi was the first female speaker of the House, and she served in that role for a total of eight years, from 2007 to 2011 and again from 2019 until 2023. In November, her Democratic colleagues voted to grant her the ceremonial title of ‘Speaker Emerita.’
Pelosi is in San Francisco for the funeral of the late Senator Dianne Feinstein. Her staff received an email Tuesday evening informing them to ‘vacate the space tomorrow’ at which point the locks would be changed.
Hoyer also got a vacate order.
The move was seen as vengeance on behalf of Republicans for Democrats not joining them to save McCarthy from being removed as speaker.
Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi was evicted from her Capitol office on Tuesday night shortly after Kevin McCarthy was ousted as speaker
Patrick McHenry is the speaker pro temp until a new speaker is elected
All House Democrats voted with eight conservative Republicans to have McCarthy removed from office.
McCarthy’s ouster came after a rebellion from conservative Republicans.
McCarthy blamed Pelosi for his ouster, saying she had pledged to support him if a motion was made to remove him. His nemesis, conservative Rep. Matt Gaetz, made the formal motion to ‘vacate the chair,’ which starts the process to have a speaker removed from power.
‘I think today was a political decision by the Democrats. And I think I think the things they have done in the past hurt the institution,’ McCarthy said Tuesday night shortly after the vote to remove him.
He said he spoke to Nancy Pelosi during his marathon speaker campaign in January and told her about conservatives’ demand he change the House rules so a single lawmaker could propose the motion to ‘vacate the chair.’
McCarthy said Pelosi told him to give in to conservatives and told him she would always back him up, implying he thought he had support from Democrats to fight back against the legislative move.
But Democrats were clear on Tuesday they saw the speakership as the Republicans’ problem.
‘This issue is about Republican dysfunction,’ Rep. Mark Takano said. ‘We don’t have an obligation to elect a Republican Speaker. But we don’t have a particular obligation to also save this speaker. So there’s not a commitment or a feeling that we need to do anything to save the speaker.’
‘We’re not here to keep Kevin McCarthy in power. This is their problem. If they have the votes to keep him, then so be it,’ Representative Jim McGovern said.
Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger said of McCarthy: ‘He has made his bed.’
Patrick McHenry (above left) is a close ally of Kevin McCarthy (right)
A photo from the Capitol showed items from Pelosi’s office being packed up on Tuesday night, while the Democrat was in California to attend Feinstein’s funeral
McCarthy said Tuesday evening he would not run again for speaker, putting the gavel up for grabs.
Next steps are highly uncertain with no obvious successor to lead the House Republican majority.
Action is halted in the House until next week, when Republicans will try to elect a new speaker.
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