BREAKING: House votes against Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s leadership as Matt Gaetz’s motion to vacate moves ahead

Gaetz stood and repeated his motion to vacate. Rep Tom Cole from Oklahoma rose to offer a motion to table that motion. The 15 minute vote saw 208 Republicans vote in favor of McCarthy's leadership, 11 against. All Democrats were in favor of the vacate motion.

The Republicans who voted against tabling the motion were Reps. Matt Gaetz, Andy Biggs, Ken Buck, Warren Davidson, Eli Crane, Bob Good, Tim Burchett, Vuctoria Spartz, Nancy Mace, Matt Rosendale, and Cory Mills.

Going into the vote, there were 221 Republicans and 212 Democrats in the House, with a total of 433. If everyone voted, the majority would be 217, meaning that McCarthy could have lost four votes from his own party and retained the speakership. He lost 11.

Gaetz said he brought the motion to prevent further Ukraine funding. While no Ukraine funding was contained in the 45-day stop gap motion passed on Friday, Gaetz alleged that a side deal was made between the Biden White House and McCarthy to consider Ukraine funding. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Thomas Massie both spoke against the motion, indicating that there was not another candidate ready, and that Gaetz had "no plan."

Prior to the vote on Tuesday, McCarthy told reporters that he thought it was "likely" that he'd be vacated as Speaker. He noted that only five Republicans needed to vote with Democrats to vacate him as speaker for the resolution to pass.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who left that chair at the turning of the Congress in 2022, said that "The Speaker of the House is chosen by the Majority Party. In this Congress, it is the responsibility of House Republicans to choose a nominee & elect the Speaker on the Floor. At this time there is no justification for a departure from this tradition. The House will be in order."

When asked by reporters about the tumult in the House over leadership, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said "it's their chaos." House Minority Leader Democrat Hakeem Jeffries said ahead of the vote that Democrats would vote to vacate the chair.

The last time the motion was used was in 1910, when House Speaker Joseph Cannon asked his supporters to bring the motion as a show of strength. Gaetz was enabled to bring the motion on his own after an agreement in January was made that ushered in McCarthy's leadership.