Senate Republicans call out MAGA 'insurgents' following McCarthy ouster: 'They have no plan'

This week marked the first time in U.S. history that a congressman was ousted as House Speaker because of a member of his own party.

After far-right Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) filed a "motion to vacate," seven fellow Republicans joined him in voting to remove Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-California) as speaker. All of the House Democrats who voted on the Gaetz-inspired measure said "yes" to ousting McCarthy.

The former House speaker's Republican allies were hoping that some House Democrats would vote to keep McCarthy, but progressive Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Washington) — who chairs the House Progressive Caucus — bluntly told reporters, "We are not voting in any way that will help Republicans…. There is reason after reason to just let Republicans deal with their own problems. Let them wallow in their pigsty of incompetence and inability to govern."

Meanwhile, in the U.S. Senate, some prominent Republicans are not happy to see McCarthy ousted as House speaker and lament the state of chaos plaguing the GOP's House majority.

Those senators, The Hill's Alexander Bolton reports in an article published on October 4, "are worried about the party's ability to govern over the next 13 months and whether they’ll be able to avoid a government shutdown later this year."

On X, formerly Twitter, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) posted, "A handful House members just want to blow up the institution and themselves in the process. Sad."

The GOP senator told The Hill, "These insurgents have no plan, and now, they've created even more chaos. And it's not good for the House; it's not good for Republicans. And they have no clear path forward."

Similarly, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi) told The Hill that Gaetz's campaign to oust McCarthy as speaker "stinks" and is "not good for the country."

Sen. John Thune (R-South Dakota) described the ousting as "a really unfortunate circumstance for the House.” And Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) told The Hill, "At the end of the day, we have to demonstrate we have the gavels, and we can govern. This is a step away from that, so they got some work to do."