A search is under way for a Speaker of the House of Representatives after Republican Kevin McCarthy was unexpectedly pushed out by a right-wing revolt in his own party. Photo: BBC News

The vote was 216-210, to topple the California Republican. All 208 Democrats teamed up with just eight GOP rebels to vacate the speaker’s chair — the first time in U.S. history that lawmakers have formally voted to remove a sitting speaker in the middle of a term. An overwhelming number of Republicans, 210, voted to keep McCarthy in power, but it was not enough to stop the effort given the GOP’s razor-thin majority.

The vote threw the GOP-controlled House into chaos as lawmakers struggled to figure out what to do next. The House is now in recess while members meet; the session was ended by Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., a top McCarthy ally, who slammed the speaker’s gavel down after the vote. McHenry will now serve as a temporary replacement for McCarthy with the title speaker pro tempore.

“I recognize that my friends on the other side have a very complex set of partisan, personal and political calculations to make — and I certainly wouldn’t presume to give them any advice about that,” Rules Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., a top McCarthy ally who tried unsuccessfully to block Gaetz’s effort, warned on the floor before the vote. “But I would say, ‘Think long and hard before you plunge us into chaos. Because that’s where we’re headed if we vacate the speakership.’”

Cole received big applause and a standing ovation from almost the entire GOP side of the chamber as he finished speaking. He led a parade of McCarthy allies in speaking in favor of retaining the speaker.

But Gaetz, countered: “Chaos is Speaker McCarthy. Chaos is somebody who we cannot trust with their word. ...I don’t think voting against Kevin McCarthy is chaos. I think $33 trillion in debt is chaos. I think that facing a $2.2 trillion annual deficit is chaos.”

A vote on McCarthy’s political future will come after the House debates the motion.

Under House rules, McCarthy had until Wednesday to take up the resolution that Gaetz, a conservative Florida Republican and Donald Trump loyalist, filed Monday night. But McCarthy and his allies moved to rip off the Band-Aid and quickly take on the so-called motion to vacate that has consumed the Capitol.

Given how rarely the speakership has been declared vacant — the last time it happened was in 1910, when Speaker Joseph Cannon declared the chair vacant against himself — it’s unclear how exactly it will play out.

A number of senior Democrats have said they won’t vote to rescue McCarthy from the mutiny. Numerous House Democrats exited their own conference meeting Tuesday mum on how they’d vote on a motion to vacate, although they stressed there would be “unity” within the party on a way forward.

“We are not saving Kevin McCarthy,” said Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., as she left the meeting.