House Republican Chip Roy Threatens McCarthy’s Speakership Over Debt Deal ‘Betrayal’

AP Photo/Alex Brandon

Congressman Chip Roy (R-TX) threatened to bring an end to Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) only months-long stint as speaker of the House Tuesday should the debt ceiling deal brokered by McCarthy pass.

Roy was among the Republican holdouts who refused to vote for McCarthy at the start of the 118th Congress, but eventually supported him after McCarthy granted a number of democratizing concessions to the rebels. On Tuesday, Roy accused McCarthy of reneging on that deal in order to make one with President Joe Biden.

In an interview with Glenn Beck (via Politico’s Jordain Carney), Roy previewed a forthcoming meeting with GOP leadership, insisting that House Republicans could “still kill this and start over and do the right thing,” characterizing it as a “betrayal of the power sharing arrangement that we put in place” during the negotiations that made McCarthy speaker.

Roy signaled that the bill’s passage could mean McCarthy’s replacement. “Then we’re going to have to then regroup and figure out the whole leadership arrangement again,” he continued.

Then during a House Freedom Caucus press conference, Roy argued that “not one Republican should vote for this deal — it is a bad deal!” while accusing McCarthy of having divided the Republican caucus.

McCarthy’s striking of an agreement with Biden came around a week before some projections predicted that the U.S. would exceed the debt ceiling and potentially default on its obligations. The legislation would impose significant spending cuts and impose new work requirements on federal welfare programs while raising the debt ceiling beyond the 2024 presidential election.

Roy’s comments came amidst NBC News’ reporting that Congressman Ken Buck (R-CO) had already floated the idea of using the motion to vacate to force a vote on dethroning McCarthy. According to NBC, Buck encountered some resistance to the idea, but one lawmaker suggested that there “are five or more [congressmen] who would be sympathetic to Buck’s position.”

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