Democratic Reps. Ruben Gallego, Raúl Grijalva and Greg Stanton voted "yes" to kicking McCarthy out of the speaker's chair. They joined Reps. Andy Biggs and Eli Crane, two far-right Republicans who have generated their fair share of controversy.
Two years ago, Biggs came under fire for allegedly endorsing a slate of fake electors to overturn the 2020 election results. Crane's most famous flub occurred in July when he referred to African Americans as "colored people" — though he later admitted he had misspoken.
The rest of Arizona's U.S. House delegation — four Republicans — voted to keep McCarthy in power. Voting "no" were Reps. David Schweikert, Juan Ciscomani, Paul Gosar and Debbie Lesko.
Schweikert called McCarthy's removal "reckless."
"The decision by eight Republicans to vote with the Democrats to oust Kevin McCarthy as Speaker was reckless and wrong," he said on X, formerly known as Twitter. "Whatever policy differences that may exist amongst Republicans, the solution should never be to empower the Left."
Ciscomani also spoke out against the removal, calling it pointless, unproductive and harmful. "The American people deserve better than the chaos controlling Congress right now," he said in an official statement.
U.S. Rep. Eli Crane joined U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs in voting to remove Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Eli Crane for Congress
Goodbye, Mr. Speaker
The 216-210 vote to strip McCarthy of power was a first. Never before in American history has the House ousted a speaker. The last time it was even attempted was back in 1910 — and that effort failed. In fact, just getting to the vote was a battle for Rep. Matt Gaetz, the Florida Republican who's emerged as McCarthy’s main antagonist. On Monday, Gaetz filed a formal motion to vote on removing McCarthy. Although McCarthy tried to table the issue, 11 Republicans voted to move it forward — including Biggs and Crane.
McCarthy had stirred up some of the wrath of Biggs and Crane through his support of a bipartisan move to avert a government shutdown over the weekend.
Both Biggs and Crane opposed the move. Crane spoke out against it in a tweet.
Biggs, however, saved his wrath for a speech on the House floor before the final vote to oust McCarthy on Tuesday.
U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs was one of just two Arizona Republicans who backed the ouster of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Win McNamee / Getty Images
‘This is a lawless Biden regime’
Biggs represents Arizona’s 5th Congressional District, which covers the heart of the East Valley, including most of Mesa and Chandler. His district also includes all of Queen Creek and Gilbert. Before the final vote to oust McCarthy, Biggs rallied support by speaking about a young deputy from Cochise County who was critically injured after falling 15 feet while trying to apprehend a runaway vehicle that was carrying migrants smuggled across the border.
"I'm talking about a border that remains wide open, where drugs come through Tucson’s sector, the most getaways, known and unknown of any sectors across the border,” Biggs told the House. “Criminal gang members, human smugglers, sex traffickers, they’re coming across our border to the tune of hundreds of thousands every month.”
In his speech, Biggs expressed the belief that the effort to avert a government shutdown was ultimately unproductive and lawmakers didn't take action on a dozen appropriations bills. The short-term funding measure, known as a continuing resolution (CR), keeps the government open until Nov. 17.
“You know why that happened? Because this body is entrenched in a suboptimal path it refuses to leave,” he said.
“I’ll just tell you why this happens,” Biggs added. “When you don’t do your 12 budget bills, and you rely ultimately on a CR … what happens is you cannot leverage this administration to actually enforce the border laws that you need to have enforced.”
Biggs then took a dig at Biden. "This is a lawless Biden regime," he said.
“They will not enforce border laws, and we can pass them till we’re blue in the face, but until you leverage the budget and the spending, you will not see enforcement by this administration,” Biggs said.
"Bet on reality,” he urged lawmakers who supported McCarthy. “That's why I can't support the speaker any longer, and I'll be voting for the motion to vacate.”
