House Speaker Kevin McCarthy managed to whip enough support to pass his debt ceiling deal struck last week with President Joe Biden.
However, the Republican speaker faced strong opposition from a coalition of House Republicans who were nowhere near happy with the terms negotiated by the two leaders. According to NBC News, some GOP members want McCarthy out of his position.
Members of the House Freedom Caucus strongly opposed the legislation, and on Monday night, one member of the caucus floated the idea of using a rule to force a vote to vacate McCarthy's speakership.
NBC News reported that Republican Ken Buck (CO) suggested that the "motion to vacate" rule be deployed in the wake of McCarthy's deal becoming public.
The outlet added:
A lawmaker on the call who confirmed that Buck brought up using the motion to vacate said of the Biden-McCarthy deal, “Some people feel this is a complete miss,” adding, “I’d say there are five or more who would be sympathetic to Buck’s position.”
"The unity we had is gone," another Freedom Caucus member reportedly said on the call.
🚨BREAKING: House Freedom Caucus leaves open possibility of filing a motion to vacate the chair if Speaker McCarthy pushes through the debt deal
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) May 30, 2023
For his part, Buck revealed during a recent MSNBC interview that he wasn't directly calling for McCarthy's ouster, rather he was posing the question as to whether the rule should be invoked at this time.
"I was asking my colleagues in the House Freedom Caucus whether they were considering a motion to vacate as a result of a broken promise," Buck said on MSNBC. "Scott Perry, the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, told me it’s premature: 'Let’s get through this battle and decide if we want another battle.'"
Regardless, Buck has not held back in his criticism of the McCarthy-Biden deal, calling it a "bad deal" in a recent tweet.
.@KevinRobertsTX is right - we need real fiscal change in Washington. This bad deal isn’t the solution. It’s the opposite. https://t.co/64F8j6UUdI
— Rep. Ken Buck (@RepKenBuck) May 30, 2023
The "motion to vacate" rule was negotiated when McCarthy struggled to gain the Freedom Caucus' support for the speakership.
When asked about the possibility of the rule being invoked, several Republican lawmakers avoided the question for the most part.
Only time will tell if the House GOP becomes even more fractured due to the bill passing on Wednesday night.