NASHVILLE — U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., said Tuesday he is poised to vote to remove Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy as head of the chamber while the Knoxville congressman noted it isn't an easy decision.
"I guess, just me personally, I just have to make a choice," Burchett, a former Knox County mayor, told Fox Business morning program host Maria Baritiroma. "Am I going to vote for my friend Kevin McCarthy or am I going to vote with my conscience?"
"I'm poised to vote to remove him from leadership," Burchett said after being pressed by Baritiroma. "Like I said, he's my friend. It's a tough decision. I've prayed about it. And I have to go either with my conscience or go with my friend the speaker. And my conscience has served me well these last 59 years. So I think I'm going to stick with my conscience."
Burchett's comments come amid continuing turmoil in the lower chamber hours after U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., a McCarthy critic, filed a resolution Monday to vacate the speaker's chair. It sets up a vote this week on whether McCarthy will continue as speaker.
(READ MORE: Rep. Matt Gaetz files resolution to oust Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the House)
Burchett recently said on CNN he would consider backing a then-potential effort to oust McCarthy as speaker.
Gaetz has acknowledged he may not have the votes to do that.
"I have enough Republicans where at this point next week, one of two things will happen," Gaetz told reporters in Washington, The Associated Press reported. "Kevin McCarthy won't be the speaker of the House or he'll be the speaker of the House working at the pleasure of the Democrats."
McCarthy, a long-time lawmaker from California, shot back on social media: "Bring it on." Gaetz returned fire with his own post: "Just did."
Only a few hard-right Republicans have signed on to Gaetz's effort.
U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Northwest Georgia, is not among them. The Rome lawmaker has backed McCarthy's bid for power since last year.
"I introduced articles of impeachment on Joe Biden on his first day in office," she wrote in a social media post. "On Oversight, we are finally conducting an impeachment inquiry bc Kevin McCarthy launched it, and our country deserves the truth about 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. No one in our conference has stepped up to be Speaker other than Kevin McCarthy."
(READ MORE: In Marjorie Taylor Greene's backyard, shutdown politics is complicated)
Greene said House Republicans have successfully stripped out military funding for Ukraine from an appropriations bill, one of 12 funding bills GOP members are working on. She also criticized the U.S. border with Mexico, saying "dysfunction will not solve any of these problems."
Greene said that athough she she agrees with Gaetz that "things must change," she opposes a motion to vacate that would give "the upper hand to the Democrats."
U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, a Tennessee Republican who is chairman of a House Appropriations subcommittee, supported the continuing resolution to keep government funded for now.
"Government shutdowns always cost taxpayers more money and harm our country," the Oltewah lawmaker said in a statement 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."
A spokeswoman for U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais, a GOP hardliner from Sherwood, Tennessee, said "no" by email when asked by the Times Free Press whether he would vote to oust McCarthy.
Contact Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com or 615-285-9480.