Boebert says she won’t support McCarthy without mechanism to remove Speaker

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) on Monday said she would not support House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) as the next Speaker unless there is a mechanism to easily remove him from the top post.

Speaking at a Turning Point USA conference in Phoenix, Boebert said, “We have to have an accountability mechanism on the Speaker of the House.”

“This is third in command for the presidency of the United States of American,” she said in an interview with “Real America’s Voice,” a conservative channel. “And we are going to strip away the one check-and-balance that members of Congress have?”

Some House Republicans want the ability for any lawmaker to call a motion to vacate the Speaker chair to make it easier to remove someone from the leadership post.

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) revised the motion to vacate rule to require a majority of caucus members to agree for its use. Pelosi tweaked the rule after one GOP lawmaker used the motion to push former Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to retirement in 2015.

McCarthy is facing resistance from a small band of far-right lawmakers as he seeks to become the next Speaker of the House in January with a narrow GOP majority.

While he won a Republican conference vote last month, the House minority leader must secure the Speakership on the floor when the new Congress forms in January.

While not naming McCarthy, the far-right House Freedom Caucus chairman, Scott Perry (R-Pa.), led six other GOP lawmakers this month in releasing a list of demands for the next Speaker, including one to reinstall the rule allowing any member to call for a motion to vacate.

Boebert on Monday agreed that all negotiations must start with the reinstatement of the motion to vacate.

“Negotiations after that are just a wish list,” she said. “There’s no accountability attached to the promises.”

While facing some dissent, McCarthy does have defenders in his party, including firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).

Rep. David Joyce (R-Ohio) earlier this month said it was a “stupid idea” to allow a motion to vacate the chair because if “constituents don’t like what we’re doing, then they can vote us out.”

“Certainly, we should give the Speaker the opportunity,” the GOP congressman said in an interview with ABC. “And at the end of two years, then vote him out.”