How would you be different as a speaker, compared to Mr. Boehner? a reporter asked then-House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy in September 2015, as the California Republican pursued and ultimately gave up his first bid for speaker.

McCarthy laughed as he stood next to outgoing Chairman John A. Boehner, who had just resigned after being threatened with removal, and joked that he was from a different generation and wouldn’t be so tan.

Eight years later, McCarthy discovers there are fewer differences between them as he faces a conservative revolt against his speakership.

“If anyone wants to delete [me] Because I want to be the adult in the room, go ahead and try it, McCarthy told reporters on Saturday.

And his critics, namely Rep. Matt Gaetz, are planning to do just that. On Monday, the far-right Florida Republican threatened to use a procedural tool called a motion to vacate in an attempt to remove McCarthy from office sometime this week.

In a speech in the House of Representatives, Gaetz demanded that McCarthy reveal the details of a supposed deal with the White House to advance legislation to help finance the war in Ukraine, after the speaker trusted Democrats to get the necessary votes would provide to finance the government.

It is becoming increasingly clear who the Speaker of the House of Representatives is already working for and it is not the Republican Conference, Gaetz said in his speech on Monday.

Here’s what you need to know about how the House can remove a speaker:

What is a motion for vacation?

The rules of the House of Representatives allow any lawmaker, Democrat or Republican, to file a motion to vacate the Speaker, which is essentially an attempt to oust the Speaker from that leadership position through a privileged resolution.

It is a rare and powerful procedural tool that has only been used twice in the past century. But in recent years, conservatives have used the movement as a weapon against their leaders.

In January, McCarthy, hoping to appease some on the far right as he fought to get their vote as chairman, agreed to allow just five Republican members to initiate a vote to oust him. But when that wasn’t good enough for his critics, he agreed to lower that threshold to the system that has historically been the norm.

Supporters of allowing a single attorney to file the motion say it promotes accountability

long

history in the house. The last use of the motion was in 2015, when then-Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina, a Republican who later became Donald Trump’s White House chief of staff, introduced a resolution to declare the speaker’s office vacant. Two months later, Boehner said he would resign.

No speaker has ever been removed from office by a vacation motion.

How does it work?

At any time, a member of the House of Representatives may introduce a privileged resolution, a designation that gives it priority over other measures to declare the office of Speaker of the House of Representatives vacant.

Once the motion is submitted, the legislator can enter the House of Representatives and request a vote. Such a request would force House leaders to schedule a vote on the resolution within two legislative days.

But there are procedural motions that members of either party can file to slow the process or stop it altogether. If these tactics failed and the resolution were brought to a vote, it would take a simple majority of the 218 votes in the House of Representatives, with no seats vacant, to remove the Speaker.

Although never successful, a motion to evict has been used as a political threat against various speakers throughout history, dating back to Republican Speaker Joseph Cannon, who first invoked the resolution against himself in 1910. The attempt failed when his fellow Republicans voted overwhelmingly. to keep him as their leader. But by calling his opponents’ bluff, Cannon was able to put them on the record and put an end to the threats against him.

In 1997, Republicans, frustrated with then-Speaker Newt Gingrich, considered trying to impeach him but ultimately decided against it. Most recently, mere whispers of a motion to resign forced Boehner from office and put McCarthy on the path to the leadership post he holds today.

Who is McCarthy trying to oust and why?

As for Boehner, calls for McCarthy’s removal began

just now

a man. Gaetz, a member of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, has been threatening to introduce a resolution to remove him from the stage since McCarthy was named speaker by a majority of the conference earlier this year.

Gaetz is one of about two dozen members who voted against McCarthy round after round as he fought to become chairman. While others eventually caved and voted for McCarthy or the present, Gaetz fought to the end.

This will all be torpedoed by one person who wants to make a motion to resign for personal, political reasons, and undermine the will of the conference and the American people, who have elected a Republican majority to govern: Rep. Mike Lawler (RN .Y). .), a McCarthy defender, told ABC on Sunday.

Gaetz and other critics of McCarthy say he has failed to be the conservative leader the party needs. They have protested his deal with the White House to raise the debt limit earlier this year and have demanded the House take spending levels to a new low. The group has also made sweeping demands to reshape the US government, which they criticize as woke and armed.

Does a motion to evict have the votes to pass?

It’s unclear at this point, but there is reason to be skeptical. However loud or disruptive they may be, the anti-McCarthy faction is only a small minority at a Republican conference that largely supports him or is receptive to his remaining speaker.

Another problem with the push to oust McCarthy is that there is no clear, consensus candidate to take his place. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Gaetz would need the support of most Democrats to impeach McCarthy if the motion ever comes to a vote, and it is far from certain that they will join him.

The one thing I agree with my Democratic colleagues on is that this House has been poorly managed over the past eight months and that we own it and we need to do something about it, Gaetz said on the floor last week. And you know what? My Democratic colleagues will also have the opportunity to do something about that. And we’ll see if they save our failed speaker.

Gaetz has spent the past few weeks speaking with Democrats from across the ideological spectrum in the House of Representatives, trying to assess what support, if any, he would receive from those on the other side of the aisle if he introduced his motion and brought it to the table came.

We have had no discussion about a hypothetical proposal to leave, Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said at a news conference on Saturday. Just cross that bridge when we get there.

What would happen next if they ousted McCarthy?

The House would be entering uncharted territory if a motion to end the fight against McCarthy were passed by the full House.

According to the rules of the House, the Speaker of the House is obliged to keep a list of persons who can act as speaker pro tempore in the event that a Speaker becomes vacant. The list, which curiously is drawn up at some point by the sitting speaker, remains with the Clerk of the House of Representatives and would be made public if the speakership were vacant.

The first person on that list would be named speaker pro tempore and their first task would be to hold elections for a new speaker. That event requires the House to vote as many times as necessary for a candidate to get a majority of those present and vote for the Speaker.

For McCarthy, that process lasted no fewer than fifteen rounds in January.

New candidates for the presidency could emerge, but nothing will stop Republicans from nominating McCarthy again.