McCarthy limps towards possible exit from Congress after year of bruising speakership

Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Following a last-minute deal with Democrats to avert a government shutdown in October, he was unceremoniously ousted by one of his most polarising foes: Matt Gaetz of Florida, leading a cadre of Republican malcontents with their own varying complaints about Mr McCarthy’s leadership. It was no secret within Washington DC circles that Mr McCarthy, 58, had long pined for the speaker’s chair. Democrats who had supported the vote saw themselves expelled from hideaways within the main Capitol building by a key McCarthy ally, while Mr McCarthy himself been unrestrained in his public criticism of Republicans like Mr Gaetz, Nancy Mace and Tim Burchett who were behind his removal. In one wilder incident, an NPR congressional correspondent witnessed a confrontation between Mr Burchett and the former speaker in the halls of Capitol Hill after the former speaker physically collided with his colleague from Tennessee during the latter’s interview.