A far-right Republican rebellion came to a head in the U.S. House of Representatives — Speaker Kevin McCarthy was ousted Tuesday from his post.
Members of South Florida's Republican delegation — Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart, Carlos Gimenez and Maria Elvira Salazar — voted to back the speaker. Democratic Reps. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, Jared Moskowitz, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Frederica Wilson voted to oust him.
Watch NBC6 free wherever you are
>
WATCH HERE"We are not the exception in America, we're the rule. That's the America Kevin McCarthy has fought for his entire career," Gimenez told the House floor. "Kevin McCarthy is a champion for the American dream, and he's proved it as our Speaker."
Pensacola Republican lawmaker Matt Gaetz headed up the effort to oust McCarthy.
Get local news you need to know to start your day with NBC 6's News Headlines newsletter.
>
SIGN UP
"The one thing that the White House, House Democrats and many of us on the conservative side of the Republican caucus would argue is the thing we have in common: Kevin McCarthy said something to all of us at one point or another that he didn't really mean and never intended to live up to," he said.
After months of threats, the hard-liner moved to topple his own party's leader, accusing McCarthy of breaking promises to Republicans by working with Democrats to stave off a government shutdown and making a secret side deal on Ukraine funding.
A defiant McCarthy has denied that.
"At the end of the day, if you throw a speaker out, that has 99% of their conference, that kept the government open and paid the troops, I think we're in a really bad place for how we're gonna run Congress," he said.
Before the vote, there was much speculation over who would be in McCarthy's corner.
But with a razor-thin House majority, a handful of hard-right Republicans were all it took to oust the speaker.
And after a two-hour closed-door meeting, House Democrats did not step in to save his job, remaining united that this is a Republican problem to solve.
"End the chaos, end the dysfunction, end the extremism," said House Minority Speaker Hakeem Jeffries. "We are ready willing and able to work together with our Republican colleagues, but it is on them to join us to move the Congress and the country forward."
