McCarthy’s Speakership Is in Jeopardy as Gaetz Renews Threat to Oust Him

Speaker Kevin McCarthy faces a momentous challenge to his leadership after one of his most outspoken Republican critics repeated a threat on Monday to try to remove him as retribution for working with Democrats to avert a government shutdown.

Representative Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida, said he planned to move ahead with a resolution to oust Mr. McCarthy, which would prompt a snap vote on whether to remove him as speaker. In an appeal from the House floor, Mr. Gaetz accused the speaker of teaming up with President Biden to advance Democratic policies.

“It is becoming increasingly clear who the speaker of the House already works for, and it’s not the Republican conference,” Mr. Gaetz said. He added later that Mr. McCarthy had allowed Mr. Biden to take his “lunch money in every negotiation.”

Mr. Gaetz had promised on Sunday to try to remove Mr. McCarthy this week, but has not said which day he will act or how many Republicans he expects might join him. The timing of his effort may be complicated by the Thursday funeral of Senator Dianne Feinstein in San Francisco, which many lawmakers are expected to attend.

Under rules Mr. McCarthy agreed to in January during his prolonged fight to become speaker, a single member can bring up a resolution declaring his office vacant, and it must receive a vote within two legislative days.

In his remarks on Monday, Mr. Gaetz cited Mr. McCarthy’s reliance on Democratic votes to push through the funding bill — a move that was necessary to avert a shutdown because Mr. Gaetz and 20 of his colleagues had opposed a temporary spending bill that was written by Republicans.

And he accused Mr. McCarthy of lying to his members during spending negotiations and making a “secret deal” with Democrats about funding for Ukraine, which he and dozens of other conservatives have opposed.

Mr. Gaetz’s invocation of Ukraine funding — an issue that has become politically toxic among the Republican base — appeared to be an effort to draw more members to his cause. He implored Mr. McCarthy to “tell us what was in the secret Ukraine side deal,” adding that “members of the Republican Party might vote differently on a motion to vacate if they heard what the speaker had to share with us.”

Mr. Gaetz later told reporters at the Capitol that he intended to continue forcing votes to oust Mr. McCarthy if his first attempt was unsuccessful.

“It took Speaker McCarthy 15 votes to become the speaker,” he said. “Until I get to 14 or 15, I don’t think I’m being any more dilatory.”

His threat is the peak of a monthslong power struggle between Mr. McCarthy and his right flank that began in January, when party hard-liners refused to back his bid to become speaker. The tension escalated this spring, when they brought House floor proceedings to a halt to protest a bipartisan deal that Mr. McCarthy had struck with Mr. Biden to suspend the debt limit.

The speaker has shrugged off Mr. Gaetz’s threats.

“I think it’s disruptive to the country, and my focus is only on getting our work done,” Mr. McCarthy said on Monday. “I want to win the vote so I can finish the job for the American people. There are certain people who have done this since the day we came in.”

Mr. McCarthy knew his dramatic about-face on the spending bill might put his speakership at risk. Over the summer and until the final hours of the spending bill fight, he had tried to cater to his party’s right wing by putting increasingly conservative appropriations bills on the House floor. He also insisted that any stopgap measure include steep budget cuts and significant border security measures.

But on Saturday, the speaker abandoned those demands and turned to Democrats for help passing a bill to extend government funding without cuts and with billions of dollars for disaster relief. Almost all the Democrats in the House ended up backing the bill. Nearly half of Republicans voted against it.

Mr. Gaetz’s antics have infuriated Mr. McCarthy’s allies, who view the Florida Republican’s campaign as a publicity stunt motivated by personal animus. As Mr. Gaetz waited to speak on the House floor on Monday, Representative Tom McClintock, Republican of California, rose and chastised him to his face without naming him. Mr. McClintock said he could not “conceive of a more counterproductive and self-destructive course” than to try to remove one’s own party’s speaker.

“I implore my Republican colleagues to look past their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests and their selfish views,” Mr. McClintock said.

Even some Republicans who initially opposed Mr. McCarthy’s speakership indicated on Monday that they would not back Mr. Gaetz’s drive to dethrone him. Representative Chip Roy of Texas, an influential conservative, said on “The Sean Hannity Show” that he believed “the speaker deserves the ability to finish this year’s process.”

But he hinted that he would be open to getting rid of Mr. McCarthy if the speaker moved to approve aid to Ukraine without also securing the southern border.

“The gloves are off then,” Mr. Roy said.

The future of Mr. McCarthy’s tenure as speaker will also depend on how Democrats vote on the question. The Republicans’ slim House majority means that if Democrats vote in unison against Mr. McCarthy, Mr. Gaetz would need only a handful of G.O.P. members to join with him to remove the speaker.

But if some Democrats side with Mr. McCarthy, he could survive. Democrats also have the option of helping Mr. McCarthy by voting “present” — neither for nor against — or simply not showing up at all, lowering the threshold for a majority.

But it is not clear if Democrats will rally to rescue Mr. McCarthy the way they did to keep the federal government open. Most House Democrats consider him an unreliable partner, particularly since he waited until the last minute to meet them in the middle over the spending fight. Many are also angry with him for announcing last month that the House would begin an impeachment inquiry into Mr. Biden, despite no evidence of personal wrongdoing.

“It’s not up to Democrats to save Republicans,” Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. She added that she would “absolutely” vote to remove Mr. McCarthy and called him a weak leader.

Karoun Demirjian contributed reporting.