Just days after becoming the first ever US House Speaker to be ousted from office in the middle of his term, Republican Kevin McCarthy has denied reports that he was resigning from Congress.
Addressing reporters on Friday, the former Speaker said: “No, I am not resigning. We are going to keep the majority. I am going to help the people I got here, and we are going to expand it further.”
Earlier on Friday, reports were doing the rounds saying that he was expected to step down at some point after the House Speaker’s election.
Pressed on whether he has considered stepping down early, he told the reporters: “I look at it every time I have to decide whether I am going to run for reelection or not.”
Amid party infighting, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives on Tuesday approved a motion to oust McCarthy in an unprecedented move, days after he relied on Democratic votes to pass a “clean” stopgap funding bill to avert a federal government shutdown.
The 216-210 vote came nearly nine months after McCarthy won the position in a dramatic 15-round floor fight, marking the first time in US history that a House Speaker had been ousted from office in a no-confidence vote in the middle of a term.
Following the vote, the California Republican had announced that he will not not run for the post again.
“I will not run for speaker again. I’ll have the (Republican) conference pick somebody else,” Xinhua news agency quoted McCarthy as saying to reporters after a closed-door meeting with party lawmakers late Tuesday night.
“I don’t regret standing up for choosing governing over grievance. It is my responsibility. It is my job. I do not regret negotiating. Our government is designed to find compromise,” he said, adding: “You know it was personal… It had nothing to do with spending.”
Meanwhile, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Republican Representative Jim Jordan have both launched bids to be the next Speaker.