Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Sunday criticized Rep. Matt Gaetz’s (R-Fla.) threat to try to remove House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) from the speakership, calling the move a “disaster.”
“I think Kevin is the right guy at the right time,” Graham told moderator Margaret Brennan on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday, after Gaetz announced he would launch a motion to oust McCarthy from his seat as Speaker of the House.
“The only way he loses his job is if a handful of Republicans join up with the Democratic Party to fire him,” Graham continued, pointing to the slim majority Republicans currently have over the Democrats in the House. “That would be a disaster for the future of the Republican party.”
On CNN earlier Sunday, Gaetz threatened to launch a “motion to vacate” McCarthy, saying McCarthy broke an agreement he made with ultra-conservative House Republicans by making a deal with Democrats that temporarily stopped the looming government shutdown on Saturday.
The temporary stopgap bill didn’t include the Ukraine aid that Democrats sought.
“If somebody wants to make a motion against me, bring it. There has to be an adult in the room,” McCarthy said after the vote on Saturday.
McCarthy won the speakership in January after 15 rounds of voting, spearheaded by a group of Republicans pushing him to agree to numerous demands. One of the concessions McCarthy agreed was the addition that just one member of the House could file a “motion to vacate” the speaker, which the rest of the House would vote on.
“We are going to have [votes] regularly,” Gaetz said last week. “If we have to begin every single day in Congress with the prayer, the pledge and the motion to vacate then so be it.”
Graham believes many of the Republicans wouldn’t vote in favor of ousting McCarthy and said the effort wouldn’t benefit the GOP
Graham told CBS that he believes any attempt to oust McCarthy would likely fall through.
“That’s not gonna happen. Kevin has the overwhelming confidence of his membership, he worked to avoid a shutdown,” Graham told Brennan. “He will fund Ukraine, but he’s telling everybody in the country, including me, you better send something over for the border for me to help Ukraine, and he’s right to make that demand.”