U.S. Rep. Juan Ciscomani remained an ally of Kevin McCarthy until the end, but his vote supporting McCarthy wasn't enough to keep the House Speaker in his seat.
Ciscomani was chatting with McCarthy in the second row of the House chamber as the votes were cast, several congressional reporters noted on social media.ย
In the aftermath, Ciscomani issued a statement saying "Speaker McCarthy's removal is pointless, unproductive and harmful to the agenda we put forth when we were elected."
He blamed Democrats, who voted against McCarthy retaining the speaker's position, and a handful of Republicans, concluding "Washington is broken."
Rep. Raul Grijalva, the Tucson Democrat, voted along with all 208 Democrats to remove McCarthy.ย
In a written statement, Grijalva said, "Kevin McCarthy never kept his word. He lied about working with Democrats in the House of Representatives and he lied about the debt ceiling agreement. The problem Kevin had as Speaker is that no one trusted him."
Among Arizona's six Republican members of the House, Reps. Eli Crane and Andy Biggs were the only two who voted to remove McCarthy.ย
Only eight Republicans voted to remove McCarthy, while 210 voted as Ciscomani did, to retain him as speaker. But those eight, in combination with Democrats such as Grijalva, succeeded in removing the speaker.ย
