Former speaker Kevin McCarthy was coldly contradicted by a community note on the social media site X, formerly known as Twitter, after announcing he would leave Congress yesterday.
In a video posted on McCarthy’s X page in September, he can be heard telling reporters: “I never quit.” He added: “I’m not working for some member sitting in our conference. I’m working for this country and I am never going to give up on the American people. I’m going to work every day and you know what? If I come up short today I’m going to work harder tomorrow. That’s what I do.”
Now, a community note appears under the tweet, which reads: “On December 6th, Congressman McCarthy announced his resignation from his congressional seat contradicting his statement he never quits.”
Community notes, X says, are to “create a better informed world by empowering people on X to collaboratively add context to potentially misleading posts.”
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McCarthy was speaking on September 29, the same day fellow Republican Matt Gaetz was reported to have been talking to Democrats about removing the speaker from the role. Days later, McCarthy was removed from the speakership and now he has confirmed he will be leaving Congress altogether.
McCarthy yesterday ended speculation he would quit and confirmed his decision to leave his California seat vacant, reducing the slim GOP majority in the House even further. He said in a Wall Street Journal column that he plans to “serve America in new ways,” and added: “I know my work is only getting started.”
News of the departure won’t be welcome among many House Republicans who are concerned about the party’s small lead in the makeup of Congressional seats. A special election is likely to be called before the one to replace George Santos in New York in February.
It means the vacated seat will lower the Republican majority of 221-213 by one. As a result, Republicans can afford to lose just three votes on key issues before they have to reach across the aisle and rely on Democrats.
“Hopefully no one dies,” quipped MAGA Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene on X. “Now in 2024, we will have a 1 seat majority in the House of Representatives.
“Congratulations Freedom Caucus for one and 105 Rep who expel our own for the other. I can assure you Republican voters didn’t give us the majority to crash the ship.”
Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images for The New York Times
McCarthy’s departure was not surprising to a number of people in Washington, D.C., due to his public feelings about losing the speakership earlier this year. A cohort of far-right Republicans moved to oust McCarthy in opposition to a continued resolution for a federal budget that needed the support of Democrats to pass.
He said at the New York Times’ DealBook Summit last month: “If you just got thrown out of speaker, you’d go through different stages, would you not? I want to know that it’s the right thing to do. And then if I’m walking away from something that I spent two decades at, I don’t want to look back and say I made an emotional decision.”
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.