WASHINGTON D.C.- Republican Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy has been removed from the speakership following the majority approval of a motion to vacate, filed Monday by Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida. The former Speaker is the first to be removed from the position and only the third Speaker to face such a motion. The last motion was brought against McCarthy’s close political ally, former Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner in 2015. The first motion was brought in 1910.

McCarthy becomes the first Speaker to be removed due to an unlikely coalition of his opponents, both internally, including the far-right members of his party, and externally, and from the unified Democratic House caucus, supporting the motion to vacate. Rep. Gaetz brought the motion against the speaker from a reported final loss of faith in the leader resulting from his cooperation with the House Democrats on the budget stopgap bill that passed late Friday, avoiding a destructive shutdown of the United States government by mere hours.

The Speaker and his House allies were unable to garner the support of any Congressional Democrats, much less the several needed to overcome his own party members’ opposition, which led to his monumental defeat. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jefferies announced in an internal caucus meeting Monday morning that Democrats should refuse to save the beleaguered speaker, on the accounts of his pandering to the same far-right legislators that mounted the offense against him. McCarthy seemed to have hammered the last nail in his own coffin just a week ago, with his official commencement of an impeachment inquiry to President Biden’s association with his son, Hunter Biden, and his foreign business dealings. Bipartisan condemnation followed the inquiry, which most political and legal experts described as baseless.

With voting in the affirmative against the California Congressman, Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona, Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee, Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado, Rep. Eli Crane of Arizona, Rep. Bob Good of Virginia, Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina and Rep. Matt Rosendale from Montana become the first members of the Congress to remove the most senior leader of their own caucus. And it only took 8 of them.

The House Democratic caucus members are the undeniable beneficiaries of the intensely political and unprecedented event. The House will now proceed with the selection of the next Speaker of the House in the coming moments and possibly weeks, a predictably tumultuous process that is likely to illustrate the image of unsuitability for leadership that the Republican party is being branded with and, evidentiarily, is exhibiting.

Now, former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy may not totally be done. The ousted leader has not shied away from electoral contention, as shown with the infamous 15 rounds of voting needed to seat the leader, and has indicated that he may once again contend for the speakership in the coming ballot race.

Rep. Kevin McCarthy immediately headed into the Speaker suite following the vote, stripped of his presiding role over the Capitol Hill office, and the House.

This is a breaking news story and The Bold will continue to update this unfolding story.