- A CBS News interview destroyed any chance that Kevin McCarthy had in keeping his job as speaker.
- Just a handful of Democrats could have easily crossed over and saved McCarthy on Tuesday.
On Sunday, Kevin McCarthy — just hours removed from helping shepherd a stopgap spending bill with bipartisan support that eventually averted a government shutdown — blamed Democrats for the near-failure of the legislation.
While speaking with CBS News host Margaret Brennan on "Face the Nation," the California Republican said he had doubts about whether the bill, which passed with mostly Democratic votes, would actually get through the House.
"I wasn't sure it was going to pass," he said. "You want to know why? Because the Democrats tried to do everything they can not to let it pass."
Brennan laughed, noting that it was Democrats who kept the bill afloat, as 90 Republicans voted against it.
And on Tuesday, as the fate of McCarthy's speakership rested among the chamber that narrowly elected him to lead it in January, House Democrats chose not to hand him what could have been the biggest political lifeline of his career.
In a 216-210 vote, McCarthy was ousted as speaker, as eight Republicans joined 208 Democrats in backing a "motion to vacate," which removed him from the position and will now allow for an election for a new speaker.
The day could have turned out much differently, as several centrist Democrats could have been inclined to back McCarthy to retain the speaker's gavel had he agreed to some concessions. But ahead of the vote, McCarthy said that he wasn't entertaining any major concessions from the minority party.
After Democratic leaders showed the "Face the Nation" interview to members on Tuesday, McCarthy's remarks angered members from across the party's ideological spectrum.
Ahead of today's vote on an effort to oust @SpeakerMcCarthy, the House Democratic Caucus watched McCarthy's interview with @margbrennan on Sunday, where he attempted to blame House Democrats for the near-government shutdown.
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) October 3, 2023
WATCH: pic.twitter.com/IwwnMYZitK
Rep. Matt Cartwright of Pennsylvania, a moderate from a district that also backed former President Donald Trump in 2020, is the sort of Democrat who might've helped McCarthy. He even suggested on Fox News last weekend that he was inclined to vote "present," which would have lowered the threshold for McCarthy to remain speaker.
But that didn't happen.
"After I saw Kevin McCarthy's interview with Margaret Brennan, all magnanimity left my body," he told Punchbowl News on Tuesday.
Not one Democrat came to McCarthy's aid, which was a missed opportunity for McCarthy, as even a handful of defections could have given him the requisite votes needed to remain speaker.
House Assistant Democratic Leader Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, who last week expressed an openness to voting for McCarthy to keep his position, told CNN on Tuesday that the CBS News interview ended any chance of that happening.
"For McCarthy to go on TV the next day and saying to all the media that the Democrats did this, the Democrats did that, that it was all our fault — Democrats brought the majority of the votes by a wide margin and for him to discredit everything that Democrats have done — everybody got very upset," the veteran lawmaker said.
Without any crossover Democratic votes and continued opposition from several hardline House conservatives, led by Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, McCarthy lost the speaker's gavel.
And on Tuesday evening, McCarthy announced that he won't run for the speakership again.
McCarthy made a range of concessions to conservatives to become speaker earlier this year. But his attempts to pin the near-shutdown on Democrats — which resulted in them shrugging their shoulders at his dilemma — may be one of the biggest blunders in modern politics.