A close Kevin McCarthy guy……
McHenry is a North Carolina Republican picked by outgoing House Speaker….
He can hold the portion for a limited time designated by the House majority….
A permemnant House Speaker will be elected by the members of the chamber …
We have discussed this here….
As Picked, Not elected, House Speaker Pro-Tempore…..
He is NOT in the line of Presidential succession….
The next person would be Senator Patty Murray, the Senate Pro-Tempore…..
Rep. Patrick McHenry is now the acting speaker, the House Clerk announced immediately after Kevin McCarthy was stripped of the gavel in a historic House vote.
The speaker pro tempore is imbued with all the powers of an elected speaker of the House. McCarthy hand-picked McHenry (R-N.C.) for this role when he was elected speaker in January. The pro tempore is kept as a secret, held by the clerk of the House, until a speaker is removed or incapacitated, a process designed after Sept. 11, 2001, to ensure continuity of government.
This is the first time that temporary replacement process has ever been carried out, following a speaker being forced out. As an acting speaker, McHenry is not in the line of succession for the presidency. Just like any acting Cabinet secretary, McHenry would be skipped.
McHenry is a close ally of McCarthy and in January served as a key negotiator with different House Republican factions to broker the deal to get McCarthy the votes to be speaker. He also played a central role in McCarthy’s debt limit deal with President Joe Biden, which conservatives within the GOP conference disparaged as one driver of their push to remove him from the speakership.
As a longtime McCarthy ally, the position is an uncomfortable one for McHenry. In his first act as temporary speaker, McHenry called the House into recess to allow conferences to meet and plot a path forward. He slammed the gavel down with obvious frustration.
The North Carolinian is no stranger to emergency appointments, though not quite of the same magnitude. He stepped in to serve as deputy GOP whip after now-Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) was shot in an attack on a GOP baseball practice in Virginia in 2017….
As his first action after smashing down the gavel?
He kicked Rep. Pelosi out of a ‘secret’ side office.….
Why wouldn’t Democrats help McCarthy & Co. stay in power?
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Next Speaker election Republican choices….
Rep. Kevin Hern, the head of the Republican Study Committee, is gauging support among GOP lawmakers ahead of a potential speakership launch, according to a Republican with direct knowledge.
The leader of the largest GOP group in the chamber, Hern arrived in Congress in November 2018. He gained some momentum during the January speaker race as the contest lapsed into multiple days. He earned a handful of votes before McCarthy ultimately prevailed….
….
Majority Leader Steve Scalise is reaching out to members to gauge whether they would support him for speaker, according to three people familiar with the conversations.
While Scalise had asserted he would support McCarthy if he ran again, it was an open secret that the two had a strained relationship and the Louisianan was interested in the top job. And some members are already signaling they would back his bid….
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Update for the list…
saying it’s up to conference. Unclear if he’d challenge Scalise, the No. 2 R, tho.
Could Rep. Matt Gaetz get kicked to the curb for getting McCarthy fired from his Speakership?
Rep. Kelly Armstrong tells
he expects a resolution to expel Gaetz from the GOP conference to come up, says it’s probably a conversation that needs to be had — tho doesn’t explicitly say he’d support it
Patrick McHenry, not “Kevin.”
“Give me McLiberty or give me McDeath.”
Caesar had his Brutus; Charles the First his Cromwell; and George the Third [“Treason!” cried the Speaker]— may profit by their example. If this be treason, make the most of it.
McHenry is only 47 but looks about 15 years older. Biden has always looked older than he is as well.
He came to Congress in his 20s as a brash firebrand who wanted to be like Tom DeLay and even as a Member of Congress, was intervening in College Republican politics. Somewhere along the way, he decided he would rather be behind the scenes on committees and as an inside Leadership player who wore bow ties.