Principals

1. McCarthy’s exit
2. The race for speaker
3. Democrats watch McCarthy sink
4. New Ukraine aid push
5. Eric Adams criticizes Biden

PDB: U.S. bond yields surge, raising deficit fears

Biden speaking on student debt … John Harris: “The House GOP is a failed state” … NYT: Prosecutors interested in Rudy Giuliani’s drinking

— edited by Benjy Sarlin, Jordan Weissmann and Morgan Chalfant

McCarthy’s swan song

Ex-Speaker Kevin McCarthy shocked the political world by announcing Tuesday night that he would not run for his old position after being forced out in an unprecedented House vote. He then proceeded to tell everyone in the Capitol exactly how he felt about them at a hastily arranged press conference.

The so-called “conservative” House rebels? “They don’t get to say they’re conservative because they’re angry and chaotic,” he said. Asked whether he’ll support primary challenges against them, he said he told his conference “I’m a free agent now, aren’t I?” As for their ringleader, Rep. Matt Gaetz: “I’ve seen the texts — it was all about his ethics,” McCarthy said, suggesting his push to remove him was tied to a pending investigation. What about moderate Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., who surprisingly joined Gaetz? “Nancy Mace is a WHOLE other story,” McCarthy said, claiming her chief of staff assured him he’d kept his promises to her. “What, I’m being too honest now?” he joked as the crowd tittered in response.

Turning to the Democrats, he claimed Rep. Nancy Pelosi abandoned a promise to back him up if conservatives tried to oust him. “I think today was a political decision by Democrats,” he said. “My fear is the institution fell today.” And he reflected on Jan. 6: “What they did to this building was so wrong,” he said, referring to the Democratic leaders who installed metal detectors outside the House floor after pro-Trump rioters ransacked the complex. Finally, he addressed the press: “I’m sure I won’t miss you, but see you soon,” he said as he departed.

Who will replace McCarthy?

The race to replace Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the House is already on, despite the obvious hazards of the job. Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C. is the speaker pro tempore in the meantime and the House will convene next Tuesday to begin discussing a permanent replacement. Here’s our shortlist of the top contenders (and check out the longlist here).

Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La. McCarthy’s longtime deputy is the most-discussed option and Punchbowl reports he’s calling around to gauge his support. He is widely admired for his courage after being wounded by a gunman at Congressional baseball practice, and his name came up frequently during the extended speaker’s race in January. Majority Whip Tom Emmer, another potential speaker, sounded like he might support him on Tuesday night while chief rebel Matt Gaetz, R-Fla. told reporters Scalise would be one of several acceptable options. Scalise is currently battling blood cancer, but said he’s responded well to treatment and told CNN on Tuesday night he’d be physically able to serve.

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio. Jordan may be the crowd favorite among conservatives, despite his close relationship with McCarthy. His long record as a partisan bulldog and ferocious performance defending Donald Trump during the former president’s first impeachment landed him a plum gig as chair of the Judiciary Committee, where he has led what was expected to be a high-profile investigation into the “weaponization of government.” (It’s been eclipsed more or less by the GOP’s impeachment inquiry). Mixed results as an investigator aside, he might be a consensus option who can draw together the party’s warring factions, and is already talking to allies about a candidacy.

Rep. Kevin Hern, R-Okla. One of the wealthiest members of the House, Hern earned his fortune running a network of McDonald’s franchises in his home state. After being elected in 2018, he quickly rose to become head of the Republican Study Committee, the conservative ideas factory whose members count as the House GOP’s single largest faction. In other words, he’s a successful business owner with impeccable ideological credentials who is popular among other members — and he too has started feeling out support.

Democrats to McCarthy: Drop dead

There was at least some speculation this week that Democrats might rush in to save Kevin McCarthy and effectively create a bipartisan coalition government, probably with the West Wing theme playing in the background while they did it. That pundit’s dream died real quick on Tuesday as Democrats threw him an anvil instead.

McCarthy clearly was bitter about it, saying they should have stood up for “the institution.” But he also didn’t give Democrats much to work with either: He publicly rejected any kind of concession — perhaps on floor votes, committee assignments, or rules — in exchange for their support. In his final speech to his conference, according to excerpts posted by Punchbowl, he seemed to suggest he stepped down in part so they didn’t have to rely on their help. “I’m not going to sell my soul to Democrats,” he said.

As the day went on, it seemed as if he had burned bridges with just about every potential Democratic ally. Many of them never forgave him for rehabilitating Trump after Jan. 6 with his Mar-a-Lago visit. But Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who was once considered friendly with McCarthy, also listed grievance after grievance in a “Dear Colleague” letter whipping Democrats against him: Reneging on a debt ceiling deal, blowing up a bipartisan NDAA bill, opening an impeachment inquiry, and cutting side deals with conservatives that made the House ungovernable. Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va. called him a “man without principle” who “cannot be trusted.” Even the most centrist Democrats, like Blue Dog co-chair Rep. Jared Golden of Maine, sounded unimpressed with McCarthy’s argument that he was at least keeping the lights on with bipartisan votes. “Absent any significantly meaningful benefit for Maine’s Second District, I see no reason to vote for him, he said.

Dems weigh options on Ukraine aid

President Biden may be trying to assure U.S. allies that America can be counted on to continue to support Ukraine, but the lack of a leader in the House further complicates the path forward for Ukraine assistance. Amid the chaos, some Democrats are talking up the idea of using an obscure maneuver called a discharge petition to eventually force a vote on billions more in aid for Kyiv. The move is tricky because it would need GOP support (it has to get at least 218 signatures, representing a majority) but there are a number of House Republicans who want to see a vote on more Ukraine funding. But first, Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said he’s working closely with House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner, R-Ohio to get a floor vote on more aid. “If whoever the Speaker is won’t do it, then we got to do a discharge petition,” he told Semafor’s Morgan Chalfant. Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., who was the only Democrat to vote against the funding bill over the weekend because it didn’t include assistance for Ukraine, also brought up the tactic and said he is “very concerned” about future aid getting approved by Congress. “You could see the chaos coming,” Quigley told Semafor. “You never lose betting against Congress accomplishing anything.”

Adams takes a shot at White House over immigration

New York City Mayor Eric Adams took his feud with the Biden administration over immigration public (again) during Semafor’s Business and Genesis House event. “I believe the White House is wrong. We cannot allow cities to go through this and carry the weight of a national process,” he told Semafor’s Ben Smith on Tuesday evening. He added that “this migrant asylum issue can destroy this city.” Adams, who has blamed the administration for not giving the city enough resources to deal with an influx of migrants, is embarking on a trip to Mexico, Colombia, and Ecuador this week to further examine the issue. And while Adams did give President Biden credit for doing a “great job” on other issues, like crime and the environment, it doesn’t seem like he’s in store for a White House meeting anytime soon.

Beltway Newsletters

Punchbowl News: Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., will meet with the 25-member Texas delegation in the House GOP today to gauge their support for his potential speaker bid. Punchbowl’s read on the frontrunner candidate: He’s “more of a hardliner than McCarthy,” a weaker fundraiser, and could struggle “separating himself from the specter of McCarthy” after 15 years of “psychodrama.”

Playbook: Some House Republicans are so furious with Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla. that they’re talking about expelling him from the conference, and others are discussing changing the rules to make it harder to oust a speaker. “Otherwise, this can just happen again,” a member of the Main Street Caucus said.

The Early 202: One question facing potential McCarthy successors is who actually wants to endure what will surely be a complicated election process. “We all hear the names, but who is really willing to step up and go through the grueling process of the votes?” said Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C.

Axios: The “violent turn” of Donald Trump’s rhetoric in recent weeks, including suggesting outgoing Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley be executed, “suggest a line has been crossed.”

White House

• President Biden will give a speech this afternoon on plans to cancel an additional $9 billion in student loan debt for 125,000 Americans, according to a White House official, through changes to income-driven repayment, relief for borrowers using Public Service Loan Forgiveness programs, and relief for those with total or permanent disability.
• The Justice Department charged Chinese companies and executives accused of supplying precursor chemicals used to make fentanyl, and the Treasury Department also sanctioned a network of Chinese manufacturers that it says is responsible for producing and distributing illicit drugs.
• Biden and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak have designs on a bilateral trade agreement with plans for talks to begin this month. — Politico

Congress

• The House won’t hold any additional votes the rest of this week while they sort out the speaker situation. The government shuts down in 44 days.
• Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md. said he would place a hold on foreign military financing for Egypt until the country takes steps to improve its human rights record. Cardin took over the Senate Foreign Relations Committee after Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J. was indicted for accepting bribes to help the Egyptian government.
• Code Pink plans to hold a “sit-in” at the office of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. today to protest him for not being “anti-war” enough, a representative for the group told Semafor at a pro-Ukraine aid press conference organized by VoteVets Tuesday afternoon (Code Pink also tried to disrupt that gathering).
• Laphonza Butler was sworn in to fill the Senate seat held by the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.

Economy

Yields for the U.S. 10-year Treasury bond hit their highest level since the global financial crisis. The likeliest causes for the spike “appear to be a combination of expectations of better U.S. growth and concern for huge federal deficits,” The Wall Street Journal reported.

Courts

A New York judge imposed a limited “gag order” on Trump after he mocked a clerk of the judge, Arthur Engoron, overseeing his civil fraud trial. Specifically, Engoron ordered Trump not to attack — or even comment on — judicial employees: “Personal attacks on members of my court staff are unacceptable, inappropriate and I will not tolerate them under any circumstances,” he said in court on Tuesday. Trump had called his clerk “Schumer’s girlfriend” and shared a photo of her in a post on Truth Social.

2024

• The Biden campaign is out with a new campaign advertisement pitching Joe Biden as a president with “middle-class” roots. It acknowledges that life is “too expensive” right now for middle-class families and highlights actions the Biden administration has taken with the goal of lowering costs. The new spot comes after fresh signs that the GOP has an edge on the economy.
• NBC News talked to Vivek Ramaswamy’s old classmates about his time in high school and college, including the time he wrote an op-ed opposing higher wages for janitors while at Harvard. “He was known in the class as the devil’s advocate,” one former law school student said. “And at a certain point, if someone is always playing the devil’s advocate, you have to kind of wonder whether he’s actually the devil.”

Big Read

Semafor’s David Weigel looks at Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s expected third-party run for president and why “Democrats, who worry about many things, don’t sound too worried about this.” Polls show his popularity with Democrats tanking, and popularity on the right surging, as he mounts a MAGA-tinged campaign through conservative media. But not everyone is convinced he’ll be a drag on the GOP ticket: Republican pollster Patrick Ruffini says his latest survey shows him drawing slightly more votes from Biden, whose marginal supporters are a little more tenuous than Trump’s.

Blindspot

Stories that are being largely ignored by either left-leaning or right-leaning outlets, according to data from our partners at Ground News.

What the Left isn’t reading: A judge reportedly ordered New York state to pay the National Rifle Association nearly hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees after a Supreme Court court victory.

What the Right isn’t reading: The State Department said it has reduced passport processing wait times.

Henry Cuellar is a Democratic congressman from Texas. He was carjacked at gunpoint in D.C. on Monday evening. The assailants stole his car, sushi meal, phone, and iPad.