NASHVILLE — U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Knoxville, was one of eight Republicans who joined with 208 Democrats to knock Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-California, from his position as House speaker Tuesday.
The small group of hardline Republicans staged the ouster as a result of McCarthy forging a last-minute deal with Democrats over the weekend to approve a funding measure to prevent a government shutdown.
Seven other Republican members of Tennessee's nine-member congressional delegation, including U.S. Reps. Chuck Fleischmann of Southeast Tennessee and Scott DesJarlais, R-Sherwood, voted against ouster. U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, a Memphis Democrat, voted for McCarthy's removal.
U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Northwest Georgia, and eight of her fellow Georgia Republican colleagues supported McCarthy continuing as speaker. The state's five Democrats supported removing him.
"I guess, just me personally, I just have to make a choice," Burchett said on Fox Business earlier in the day. "Am I going to vote for my friend Kevin McCarthy or am I going to vote with my conscience?"
Burchett, a former Knox County mayor and former Tennessee state lawmaker, later criticized McCarthy because the House went on recess in August while the funding crisis burgeoned.
"There is no urgency," Burchett griped. "And then we just do a continued resolution, kicking the can 45 days down the road, and then that will be right up against the Thanksgiving holiday, and then we'll put in an omnibus which is a big bill. More spending, more ... lobbyists and special interests. The big boys will stay in power. And at some point, we've just got to say enough is enough."
The move to declare the speakership vacant was led by U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Florida, a persistent and often harsh McCarthy critic.
"We are breaking the fever," a jubilant Gaetz later proclaimed.
House Republicans later went into conference to determine their next steps. McCarthy reportedly said he will not seek to regain his post.
Congresswoman Greene later posted on social media a link to an ABC journalist who posted that in a prior meeting of Democrats that U.S. Rep. Daniel Goldman of New York said he had received an earlier call from former Republican U.S. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, a Trump critic. Citing two unnamed sources, the journalist wrote Cheney told the Democrats in the meeting that they should "get rid" of McCarthy.
(READ MORE: In Marjorie Taylor Greene's backyard, shutdown politics is complicated)
"That should make things clear," Greene said in her post. "Crystal."
Greene said the House was making progress under McCarthy on issues such as an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.
"If the Speaker is vacated, the House comes to a halt, no bills can be passed, nothing can be done until we elect another Speaker," she wrote on social media. "No one in our conference has stepped up to be Speaker other than Kevin McCarthy."
Greene said that although she agrees with Gaetz that "things must change," she opposed a motion to vacate that would give "the upper hand to the Democrats."
Fleischmann, chair of a House Appropriations subcommittee and a McCarthy backer, supported the continuing resolution to keep government funded for now.
"Government shutdowns always cost taxpayers more money and harm our country," the Ooltewah lawmaker said in a statement Monday to the Chattanooga Times Free Press. "That's why I voted to keep the government open for 45 more days to give Congress time to continue passing conservative, fiscally responsible bills to fund the government."
Contact Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com or 615-285-9480.