California Republican Kevin McCarthy was just removed from his position as Speaker of the House by a collection of Republicans led by Rep. Matt Gaetz and the Democrat contingent in the House, and now Rep. Patrick McHenry, a North Carolina Republican, is his temporary successor.
Rep. McHenry apparently used his temporary power as Speaker to give former Speaker Nancy Pelosi the boot from her Capitol office, doing so in an email saying that the lock for it would be rekeyed, which made Rep. Pelosi start fuming. Such is what POLITICO first reported, saying that a top aide on the Republican-controlled House Administration Committee wrote Pelosi an email saying, “Please vacate the space tomorrow, the room will be re-keyed.” The email reportedly added that Pelosi needed to vacate because the room had been reassigned by acting speaker McHenry “for speaker office use.”
POLITICO went on to report that former Speaker Pelosi blasted her eviction at the hands of acting speaker McHenry in a statement, calling it “a sharp departure from tradition.” She went on to add that she gave former Speaker Dennis Hastert “a significantly larger suite of offices for as long as he wished.”
She, however, did not have much time because acting speaker McHenry made her leave near-immediately, and so she had to deal with the situation from California, where she was for the funeral of former Senator Dianne Feinstein. “Sadly, because I am in California to mourn the loss of and pay tribute to my dear friend Dianne Feinstein, I am unable to retrieve my belongings at this time,” Pelosi said in the statement.
With all of the important decisions that the new Republican Leadership must address, which we are all eagerly awaiting, one of the first actions taken by the new Speaker Pro Tempore was to order me to immediately vacate my office in the Capitol,” Pelosi also said in her statement.
“Office space doesn’t matter to me, but it seems to be important to them. Now that the new Republican Leadership has settled this important matter, let’s hope they get to work on what’s truly important for the American people,” Pelosi added.
In a tweet about the Speaker of the House situation, Rep. Pelosi said, “The Speaker of the House is chosen by the Majority Party. In this Congress, it is the responsibility of House Republicans to choose a nominee & elect the Speaker on the Floor. At this time there is no justification for a departure from this tradition. The House will be in order.”
