Kevin McCarthy backed by LI House members until the end

WASHINGTON — All four of Long Island’s Republican congressmen stood by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy as he lost a bitter fight with Rep. Matt Gaetz over his bid to oust him from his powerful office in a historic and stunning vote Tuesday afternoon.

The Long Island lawmakers supported McCarthy with the rest of the New York Republican delegation and the overwhelming majority of House Republicans, and expressed anger and disappointment about McCarthy’s loss because a decisive eight Republicans voted with Democrats.

And they found themselves in unchartered territory after the small group of hard-line conservative Republicans led by Gaetz, a Florida Republican, succeeded for the first time in U.S. history in using an obscure procedure called the “motion to vacate” to topple a House speaker.

That leaves Congress without anyone confirmed for the constitutional officer of speaker, hampering the House in its attempt to pass the rest of its appropriations bills and to negotiate with the Senate’s Democratic majority to fund the government throughout 2024.

That increases the chances of a government shutdown, said Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-Bayport).

“Republican members who voted with the Democrats to get rid of McCarthy, a lot of them said they want to do regular order, they want to do appropriations bills and want to get this done and now, we can’t do those things,” Garbarino said.

“It’s like they’ve got the matches and they set fire to the building and then complain that it’s on fire,” said Garbarino, who has worked closely with McCarthy.

'Chaos reigned supreme'

Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-Island Park) said, “Chaos reigned supreme on the House floor today as a small band of rogue Republicans sided with Democrats to oust Speaker McCarthy.”

Both Garbarino and D’Esposito joined other McCarthy supporters in saying they believed Gaetz carried out a personal vendetta against McCarthy.

Garbarino recalled Gaetz telling him in November that “McCarthy would never be speaker.”

Before the vote Tuesday, D’Esposito and Rep. Nick LaLota (R-Amityville) expressed confidence that the motion to vacate the speaker’s office filed Monday evening by Gaetz would fail — much as it did the only other time it was used in 1910.

“My colleagues and I are rallying around Kevin McCarthy because he is the personification of a common-sense conservative,” LaLota said as he left a Tuesday morning meeting of the Republican conference to discuss the expected vote.

“He’s a practical man. He’s a reasonable man who wants to promote the commitment to American agenda, which would help secure the border, would rein in spending and hold the administration accountable,” LaLota said.

“This is an attempted coup — 98% of the conference believe Kevin McCarthy should remain as speaker,” LaLota said.

As he left the House Republican conference Tuesday morning, Rep. George Santos (R-Nassau/Queens) answered a question about how he planned to vote on Gaetz’s motion by saying, “I’m a no.”

And though he usually sits with some of the eight Republicans who voted to remove McCarthy as speaker, Santos voted against the motion to vacate.

Disappointment with Democrats

Garbarino said he was disappointed that Democrats did not offer to rescue McCarthy, much as they did on Saturday by helping pass a short-term spending bill to keep the government open until Nov. 17.

But in a letter to House Democrats on Tuesday morning, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-Brooklyn) said the responsibility for ending the “House Republican Civil war” rests with its Republican members.

“This was a political win for the Democrats. But governmentally, this was, this is a disaster,” Garbarino said.

Correction: A short-term spending bill passed by Congress will keep the federal government open until Nov. 17. A previous version of this story misstated the date.