The first official act of the interim Speaker of the House of Representatives was to instruct Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to vacate her hideaway office, which she had declined to leave during the previous speaker’s tenure.
Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) lost his position as speaker on Tuesday when a coalition of both parties voted him out. McCarthy had assumed the role of the 55th Speaker of the House in January but was removed from office— 216 to 210. Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) assumed the temporary speakership and issued the eviction notice to Pelosi just a few hours later.
Twitter users rejoiced, posting comments in response to her being forced to vacate. Some stated it should have happened months ago. Others commented, “Well done, Patrick McHenry,” and “Bravo!”
In one of his first moves since Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s ouster as house speaker, acting speaker Rep. Patrick T. McHenry (R-N.C.) ordered former House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to “immediately” vacate her hideaway office in the Capitol by Wednesday. https://t.co/HYByBFWnae
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) October 4, 2023
An email to Pelosi stated, “Please vacate the space tomorrow; the room will be re-keyed.” The communication also mentioned that the office would be repurposed for “speaker office use.” Pelosi criticized the directive in a statement released by her office.
It said, “With all of the important decisions that the new Republican Leadership must address, which we are all eagerly awaiting, one of the first actions taken by the new Speaker Pro Tempore was to order me to immediately vacate my office in the Capitol.”
She said, “This eviction is a sharp departure from tradition. As Speaker, I gave former Speaker Hastert a significantly larger suite of offices for as long as he wished.”
However, we know Pelosi is indeed a fan of departing from tradition. Maybe she forgot about 2021 when her Democratic majority proposed eliminating “father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister” from the House rules because they weren’t “gender-inclusive” enough.
Or how about when she endorsed a movement announced by other congressional Democrats to ratify an amendment to the Constitution? They were attempting to rewrite the First Amendment. Judging by her actions throughout her political career, tradition means nothing to Pelosi.
Pelosi was absent from Capitol Hill as she attended the funeral of the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who passed away at 90. Pelosi explained, “Sadly, because I am in California to mourn the loss of and pay tribute to my dear friend Dianne Feinstein, I am unable to retrieve my belongings at this time.”
Fortunately for her, her partners in crime have agreed to handle that issue for her. A spokesperson for Pelosi noted that the staff of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York was assisting in relocating Pelosi’s belongings from her hideaway office.
In a surprising turn of events, the House of Representatives witnessed a swift transition in leadership, marked by the removal of Speaker Kevin McCarthy and the temporary appointment of Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry. McHenry took the opportunity to put Pelosi in her place— revoking her private Capitol office perk.
Amidst this shift, the order to Rep. Nancy Pelosi to vacate her office added a touch of controversy to the proceedings. The day’s events underscore the unpredictability of political dynamics in the nation’s capital, leaving us all eager to see how this episode will shape the course of future congressional affairs.
