The Congressman, who represents parts of the Central Coast, joined in a historic vote Tuesday in the US House of Representatives to remove Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
KCBX's Amanda Wernik spoke with Congressman Salud Carbajal, who has been critical of the former Speaker.
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Amanda Wernik: Just to dive right in, what was it like on the house floor when the results of the vote were announced?
Congressman Salud Carbajal (24th District): There’s no glee in what transpired. This was an unfortunate day for our country, but I did vote in favor of the motion to vacate the speaker of the house.
We have real challenges facing our nation– inflation, addressing our economy– and this house, under the leadership of former Speaker McCarthy, has been gravitating towards the right. Instead of focusing on addressing these important challenges facing our nation, they have focused more on partisan ideology and pursuing baseless impeachment and ideological legislation.
Wernik: We've heard this is uncharted territory for Congress, so what happens now and who do you support?
Carbajal: I think now you get into a whole lot of procedural issues. Representative (Patrick) McHenry is now the speaker pro tem, and this is somewhat uncharted water.
There's going to be a number of votes to try to seat a speaker, and that's going to go through a similar process like we did at the beginning of this Congress. If they are able to muster the votes to seat that speaker, whoever it might be, is one thing.
But if not, we will be in limbo and in chaos for weeks and months to come.
Wernik: And something else happened today, what’s your response to Laphonza Butler being sworn in to replace the late Dianne Feinstein’s seat for senator?
Carbajal: She comes with exceptional and extraordinary credentials, having served and worked with SEIU and the UC Board of Regents for California. She has a long career dedicated to advocating for working families, public education, civil rights and the LGBTQ community. She's going to be an awesome Senator for the state of California, and I look forward to working with her as I did with Senator Feinstein– may she rest in peace.
