Several House Republicans in a key bipartisan group have said they could soon see a mass exodus over their Democratic counterparts’ role in Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s ouster this week. 

‘I’m really thinking strongly about leaving the Problem Solvers Caucus,’ Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., told Fox News Digital. ‘I think there’s a lot of Republicans who are disenchanted with the Democratic members of the Problem Solvers Caucus.’

McCarthy, R-Calif., became the first speaker of the House in U.S. history to be booted from the job after eight hardliners within his party joined with every Democrat to vote him out of it.

‘I’m very frustrated that none of the members who claim to be centrist… would work with us to defeat this motion to vacate,’ Malliotakis said. ‘If their whole purpose is to bring good governance and make sure that we can continue our work to get through this appropriations process in the next 40 days, they should have done the right thing here, which would have been to… keep Congress working.’

Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, R-N.Y., said when asked if he and other Republicans wanted to leave the group, ‘I don’t want to speak for them, but I know I am definitely not happy, and I’ve… spoken to others who feel similar.’

A source familiar with discussions told Fox News Digital that senior Republicans in the Problem Solvers Caucus were under the impression that several Democratic lawmakers would shield McCarthy. 

‘Republican leaders in the Problem Solvers Caucus made last-ditch efforts up until the vote to get Democrats to help save McCarthy’s speakership. They viewed it as an opportunity for a bipartisan effort to save the institution after Speaker McCarthy put a bipartisan bill to avert a government shutdown on the floor,’ the source said.

‘Before the House Dem meeting, a few Dem members had indicated that they would likely help save McCarthy and then flipped and joined [Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla.] in ousting the speaker.’

Democrats would not have necessarily had to vote for McCarthy to save him. If enough lawmakers voted ‘present’ it would have given him a lower threshold needed to reach a simple majority – though the effect would have been the same.

Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., said when asked about Republicans leaving the Problem Solvers Caucus, ‘I think a number of my colleagues have certainly raised that.’

‘I have not yet. I think that, you know, I want to let cooler heads prevail a little bit before having that conversation,’ Lawler said. ‘But, you know, I think this was a problem to be solved, and folks failed to meet the moment.’

Problem Solvers Caucus co-chair Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., said on CNBC on Thursday, ‘There are a lot of us that are very upset… This was a golden opportunity for us to come together and actually oppose a move by the extremists in Congress, and the whole institution fell short.’

Malliotakis accused Democrats of acting hypocritically in voting the same way as Gaetz and other GOP hardliners.

‘You can’t have it both ways,’ she said. ‘You can’t say reject the extremists and then go out of your way to work with them.’

D’Esposito called it ‘the most extreme legislative action’ he had seen on the House floor.

‘Many Democrats wrongly slander their Republican colleagues as alleged ‘extremists,’ but when push came to shove, those same Democrats entered into an unholy alliance with Matt Gaetz and his crew of misfits to paralyze the government,’ he said.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Problem Solvers Caucus for comment but did not immediately hear back. 

A group of Senate Republicans vowed to block non-spending-related bills in a letter sent to Sen. Majority leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., on Wednesday, as the upper chamber breaks for a Columbus Day recess until next week. 

The upper chamber has until November 17 until the current Continuing Resolution (CR) expires, and Congress will need to come together again to agree on a government spending package for the next fiscal year. 

The senators fear that if the spending legislation gets put on the back burner behind other bills, Democrats in the upper chamber will try to jam through another omnibus spending package. 

‘Today, despite being past the September 30th deadline, with the Senate Appropriations Committee having already passed each of the 12 bills for our chamber, we have the best opportunity in decades to complete our work,’ Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., said in the letter.

Senate Whip John Thune, R-S.D., Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, Senate Republican Conference Chairman John Barrasso of Wyoming, Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, GOP Conference Vice Chairwoman Shelley Moore-Capito of West Virginia, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., also signed the letter, among others. 

‘We urge you to present a plan to the Republican Conference for how you intend to pass the remaining appropriations bills and conference them with the House in a manner that respects an open amendment process and which does not end in a December omnibus spending package,’ the letter read.

‘For this reason, we the undersigned senators pledge to withhold our support for any vote to proceed to items unrelated to appropriations bills.’

The fiscal year ends at midnight on October 1. Had the Senate rejected the bill to extend funding past midnight, nonessential government programs would have paused, and thousands of federal employees would have been furloughed. The funding includes $16 billion in disaster relief but does not include additional aid to Ukraine.

‘If we don’t get the appropriations process going here, we’re just not going to get any of these bills done before the end of the year, and we’re gonna end up in a terrible position at the end of the year,’ Thune said during Tuesday’s press conference following the GOP conference’s weekly luncheon. ‘So, I hope Senator Schumer will make this the number-one priority, he’s got other things he wants to do, we shouldn’t be doing anything else right now but dealing with appropriations bills.’

Elected in 1993 as a ‘mom in tennis shoes,’ Senate President Pro Tempore Patty Murray, D-Wash., has risen to be second in line for the presidency amid the House’s speaker battle.

After Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., was ousted from the speakership on Tuesday, the job passed temporarily to House Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry, R-N.C.

Typically, the presidential line of succession goes from the vice president to the speaker of the House, then passes to the president pro tempore of the Senate before going down the list of Cabinet officials.

However, as the interim speaker, McHenry is not counted in the presidential line of succession – meaning the list moves up a spot for everyone on it.

Murray, as president pro tempore of the Senate, is currently second in line to take the presidential oath of office, if President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were unable to perform their duties.

Fox News Digital reached out to Murray’s office but did not receive a response.

‘Patty first got involved in politics to fight back against politicians who were trying to cut a preschool program that her kids counted on,’ the senator’s campaign website reads.

‘When one legislator told her that she couldn’t make a difference because she was ‘just a mom in tennis shoes,’ she realized that if she wanted change, she was going to have to lace up those tennis shoes and fight back,’ her website continues.

‘So she called other moms and dads, she organized rallies and phone banks, she fought, and she won,’ it reads.

Murray was chosen last year to be the Senate president pro tempore by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who skipped over Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., for the role. 

The president pro tempore is a position laid out by the Constitution to chair the Senate when the vice president is not present. It’s a largely powerless office as Senate party leaders control legislative traffic on the floor.

The Presidential Succession Act, however, makes the president pro tempore third in the line of succession, following the vice president and House speaker.

Traditionally, the president pro tempore job goes to the most senior senator in the majority party.

On Tuesday, McCarthy was ousted as speaker with every Democrat in the chamber at the time, along with several Republicans led by Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida. voting to remove.

Fox News Digital’s Caroline McKee and Tyler Olson contributed reporting.

EXCLUSIVE: Former President Donald Trump told Fox News Digital that he would accept a short-term role as speaker of the House of Representatives to serve as a ‘unifier’ for the Republican Party until lawmakers reach a decision on who should take on the post.

Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., was removed as speaker of the House on Tuesday after Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., introduced a measure against him known as a motion to vacate, accusing him of breaking promises he made to win the speaker’s gavel in January.

‘I have been asked to speak as a unifier because I have so many friends in Congress,’ Trump told Fox News Digital. ‘If they don’t get the vote, they have asked me if I would consider taking the speakership until they get somebody longer-term, because I am running for president.’ 

‘They have asked me if I would take it for a short period of time for the party, until they come to a conclusion — I’m not doing it because I want to — I will do it if necessary, should they not be able to make their decision,’ Trump said.

Trump did not specify who had asked him, although a number of GOP lawmakers have said he is their preference for speaker.

Since McCarthy’s ouster, both House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., have announced bids to run for speaker.

Trump stressed that if Republicans cannot come to a consensus, he would take the speakership for a short ’30, 60, or 90-day period.’ 

‘I would only do it for the party,’ he said, stressing that his focus is on his presidential campaign. 

Back in January, as the House considered who should become the speaker after Republicans took the majority of the chamber, Gaetz opted not to vote for McCarthy or Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida, who was floated as an option, but voted instead for Trump.

When Gaetz’s name was called during the seventh round of voting, he responded: ‘Donald John Trump.’ 

Meanwhile, Trump told Fox News Digital that he will visit Washington, D.C., on Tuesday and plans to be on Capitol Hill to speak with members of the House Republican Conference as they consider who will become the next speaker. 

As for whom he would support for speaker, the former president did not comment. 

A source familiar, though, told Fox News Digital that Trump is very close to Jordan and has always had a great relationship with him. The source said Trump also has a great relationship with Scalise. 

Trump is leading the 2024 Republican presidential primary field by a massive margin.

The most recent Fox News poll shows 60% of Republican primary voters supporting Trump for the GOP nomination, up from 53% in the last survey in August. 

HOUSE REPUBLICANS MOVE ‘FULL STEAM AHEAD’ ON IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY EVEN AMID SPEAKER UNCERTAINTY

The only other candidates to receive double-digit support in that poll are Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at 13% and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy at 11%.

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley sits at 5%, with former Vice President Mike Pence and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott at 3% each. Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is polling at 2%, with the remaining GOP candidates receiving less than 1%.

Former President Trump is expected to head to Capitol Hill next week as the House of Representatives prepares to elect a new speaker, following the ouster of Rep. Kevin McCarthy, Fox News Digital has learned. 

Two sources familiar told Fox News Digital that the former president and 2024 GOP frontrunner is planning to speak with members of the House Republican conference on Tuesday as they consider who will become the next speaker of the House. Another source told Fox News Digital that the details are still being ironed out. 

Another source told Fox News Digital that the plans to travel to Washington, D.C., on Tuesday will not impact the former president’s campaign stop in New Hampshire on Monday. That visit will be his first visit back to the lead-off presidential primary state in two months.

McCarthy, R-Calif., was removed as House speaker on Tuesday after Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., introduced a measure against him known as a motion to vacate, accusing McCarthy of breaking promises he made to win the speaker’s gavel in January.

Lawmakers voted to oust McCarthy from the speakership for the first time in the history of the House of Representatives.

Since McCarthy’s ouster, both House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., have announced bids to run for speaker of the House.

It is unclear, at this point, who Trump would throw his support behind. 

‘Both of these men would represent a monumental step forward for the Republican conference,’ Gaetz told Fox News Digital during an interview Thursday. ‘I don’t believe there is a single conservative in the country who would not believe we are in a better position with either of them.’

Gaetz told Fox News Digital he would be ‘honored to vote for either of these men on the floor.’

‘In conference, I’ll make a decision based on spending,’ Gaetz said, referring to the House GOP conference meeting next week. ‘And whether they’re willing to liberate us on these continuing resolutions.’

Meanwhile, as Jordan gains support for speaker of the House within the GOP conference, questions are swirling as to who could take his post as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee — which is jointly leading the impeachment inquiry against President Biden, alongside the House Oversight and Ways & Means Committees — if he is elected.

Capitol Hill sources said Gaetz may have ambitions for the post himself, but when asked, the congressman offered his support to a colleague instead.

‘The best person to take the Judiciary Committee if Jordan became speaker would be (Louisiana Rep.) Mike Johnson,’ Gaetz told Fox News Digital. ‘Because he’s a better lawyer than I am.’

Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., snapped back at Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., online Thursday afternoon as calls for former President Donald Trump to become the next speaker of the House echo among some GOP lawmakers.

‘No thanks, we’re good,’ Schumer said on X, formerly known as Twitter, in response to the congresswoman. ‘We’ve seen a Trump rally at the Capitol already.’

Schumer’s post was a dig at Trump, who has been accused as the main perpetrator for the Capitol riots on Jan. 6, 2021.

Greene originally posted, ‘If Trump becomes Speaker of the House, the House chamber will be like a Trump rally everyday!!’

She added, ‘It would be the House of MAGA!!!’

Republican lawmakers floated the former president as the next speaker just hours after Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., was ousted Tuesday. Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., introduced the motion to vacate Monday night over McCarthy’s purported failure to uphold promises he made when he was voted in after 15 rounds of votes that lasted days in January.

Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, said in a statement Tuesday afternoon his first order of business when the House reconvenes ‘will be to nominate Donald J. Trump for Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.’

‘President Trump, the greatest President of my lifetime, has a proven record of putting America First and will make the House great again,’ Nehls said.

Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., followed suit in a post on X on Tuesday evening: ‘@realDonaldTrump for Speaker.’

The next speaker does not have to be a sitting member in the House, but every speaker in U.S. history has been.

It’s not the first time Trump has been floated as a nominee for speakership. In January, as McCarthy struggled to garner enough votes to secure his speakership, Gaetz cast a ballot for Trump.

McCarthy angered hardliners over the weekend when he passed a short-term spending bill known as a continuing resolution to keep the government open for 45 days to avert a government shutdown and give lawmakers more time to cobble together 12 individual spending bills.

So far, Reps. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Steve Scalise, R-La., have announced bids for the speakership.

A new survey shows that the presidential race between former President Donald Trump and President Biden is thin, but Biden faces a deficit in terms of registered voters and the election will rest heavily on who mobilizes the most voters.

A new Marquette Law School national survey shows Trump with 51% of the vote compared to Biden at 48% among registered voters, but reflects that Biden has a 51% to 49% advantage with people who are ‘likely’ to vote. 

‘The difference in advantage shows how the outcome of the election may be determined by the success of respective efforts to mobilize voters over the coming 13 months,’ the survey states.

The poll, conducted from Sept. 18-25, shows that registered voters who are ‘very’ or ‘somewhat’ enthusiastic about the 2024 election favor Trump by a margin of 54% to 46%.

The survey also polled voters on a matchup between Biden and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and the latter topped the president 51% to 48% among registered voters.

With likely voters, Biden leads 51% to 48%.

In terms of ‘reluctant’ voters, Biden holds a lead of 51% to 47%.

The poll shows that 12% of voters will choose someone else besides Biden or Trump, and 4% won’t vote.

‘Registered voters view Trump as better able to handle the economy, immigration, inflation, creating jobs, and foreign relations, while Biden is seen as better at handling Medicare and Social Security, abortion policy, and climate change,’ the survey says.

‘A significant share say there is no difference or that neither candidate would be good on each issue.’

The survey was conducted among 1,007 adults nationwide, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.1 percentage points.

Cornel West is no longer running for the White House as a Green Party presidential candidate.

The outspoken progressive university scholar announced on Friday that he’s now seeking the presidency as an independent candidate.

‘People are hungry for change. They want good policies over partisan politics. We need to break the grip of the duopoly and give power to the people. I’m running as an Independent candidate for President of the United States to end the iron grip of the ruling class and ensure true democracy!’ West said Friday in a social media posting.

And the West campaign, in a statement, said that ‘as Dr. West’s campaign for president grows, he believes the best way to challenge the entrenched system is by focusing 100% on the people, not on the intricacies of internal party dynamics.’

CORNEL WEST SAYS DEMOCRATIC PARTY ‘BEYOND REDEMPTION’

West, who was a surrogate for progressive firebrand Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2016 and 2020 Democratic presidential campaigns, started his 2024 bid for the presidency on the People’s Party ticket. 

But concerns of the People’s Party ballot access led to West switching to the Green Party, which is already on the ballot in nearly 20 states across the country.

West’s decision to now run as an independent complicates his ability to get on the ballot, as his team will have to gather a long list of signatures in each of the 50 states.

Democrats have deep concerns over West’s White House bid, even though his fundraising has been paltry.

Their concerns center on West’s ability to appeal to certain elements of the Democratic base that are crucial to President Biden’s 2024 re-election. And in an election that will likely once again be extremely competitive in key states across the country, Democrats worry a vote for West could boost former President Donald Trump, the commanding frontrunner for the Republican nomination.

The 70-year-old West, who’s authored 20 books, has repeatedly dismissed talk that he could be a spoiler by helping Trump regain the presidency.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, West called warnings that he could play a role in re-electing Trump ‘a plausible argument.’ But he added that ‘it’s not a persuasive one for me.’

West may soon have company running as an independent. Environmental lawyer and high-profile vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a scion of the famous Kennedy political dynasty, is expected to drop his long-shot bid for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination and run as an independent candidate.

And the centrist group No Labels is also seriously mulling fielding a 2024 independent ‘unity’ ticket in the presidential race.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, made his pitch for the speaker’s gavel to the pragmatic Main Street Caucus on Thursday afternoon.

That group is a critical one for Jordan to please in order to win the top spot. The business-minded caucus boasts a significant number of moderates, in addition to its conservative members. 

Those moderates, particularly from districts won by President Biden in 2020, may be wary of supporting a lawmaker who previously led the hardline-right House Freedom Caucus.

‘I think there’s still some hesitation from New Yorkers… particularly those who are in Biden districts, because Jim Jordan has just been so pro-Trump,’ one source familiar with the meeting told Fox News Digital afterward. ‘You’ve got the moderates that are in Biden districts that may not feel comfortable.’

However, two Main Street Caucus members, both from majority-Republican districts, told Fox News Digital after the meeting that Jordan made a strong case for himself.

Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., who had been voicing concerns about the one-member threshold motion to vacate, said Jordan broached his and others’ issues on the matter effectively. 

The one-member motion to vacate rule allowed Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., to call for former Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s ouster on Monday. Gaetz and seven other Republicans joined House Democrats in booting McCarthy, R-Calif., from leadership on Tuesday — leaving a power vacuum in his wake.

‘He understands that we need to change the rule. I think he wants to change it in the right way. And he may be the one person that can change that rule,’ Gimenez told Fox News Digital. ‘I trust Jim Jordan… I have no problem considering him for speaker.’

Gimenez said Main Street Caucus Republicans ‘made clear to him’ in the meeting that changing the motion to vacate rule ‘was our number one priority.’

‘He’s a Freedom Caucus member. And, and so you know, I had some caution there, but I’ve gotten to know Jim Jordan,’ he said. ‘I think he’s smart. I also think one thing about Jim Jordan — I think he’s a very honorable person. A man of his word.’

Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., told Fox News Digital she also was impressed by Jordan and suggested he could serve as a bridge between moderates and conservatives.

‘Jim Jordan made a good presentation. Probably one of his strengths is that… he’s probably most likely to be able to bring everyone together because of his relationships with both the Freedom Caucus and moderates, and the conservatives in between,’ she said.

Malliotakis said among the topics discussed were avoiding a possible government shutdown and how to navigate working with Democrats in both the House and Senate, as well as changing the motion to vacate rule.

Neither Malliotakis nor Gimenez has decided on whom to support. 

In addition to Jordan, Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., has also thrown his hat in the ring. Republican Study Committee Chair Kevin Hern, R-Okla., is also considering a run for speaker.

Malliotakis said both Jordan and Scalise were ‘gifted communicators,’ speculating that they will likely end up being the two frontrunners for the job.

Scalise is due to speak with the Main Street Caucus on Friday morning, Fox News Digital has learned. He’s also speaking with the Western Caucus and the House GOP freshman class.

A federal court ordered an injunction on a top agency within the Department of Homeland Security after finding that it likely violated the First Amendment by coordinating with social media companies to effectively censor ‘election-related speech.’

On Tuesday, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals extended the scope of an injunction in place that limits the Biden administration’s communication with big tech companies to include the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) within the Department of Homeland Security.

According to GOP Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, who is leading the litigation against the Biden administration, CISA is the ‘nerve center’ of the White House’s ‘vast censorship enterprise’ and ‘the very entity that worked with the FBI to silence the Hunter Biden laptop story.’

‘CISA was created to protect Americans from foreign attack, and now it has begun targeting its own citizens,’ Bailey told Fox News Digital.

A three-judge panel determined in the court order that CISA was the ‘primary facilitator’ of the FBI’s interactions with the social-media platforms and worked in close coordination with the FBI to push the platforms to change their moderation policies to cover ‘hack-and-leak’ content.

The opinion describes CISA’s ‘switchboarding’ operations as ‘merely relaying flagged social-media posts from state and local election officials to the platforms.’ But the judge said that ‘in reality, the practice is ended up being ‘[s]omething more,” the order reads.

‘CISA used its frequent interactions with social-media platforms to push them to adopt more restrictive policies on censoring election-related speech. And CISA officials affirmatively told the platforms whether the content they had ‘switchboarded’ was true or false,’ it continues.

‘Thus, when the platforms acted to censor CISA-switchboarded content, they did not do so independently. Rather, the platforms’ censorship decisions were made under policies that CISA has pressured them into adopting and based on CISA’s determination of the veracity of the flagged information. Thus, CISA likely significantly encouraged the platforms’ content-moderation decisions and thereby violated the First Amendment,’ the judges said. 

The injunction stems from a lawsuit brought by Missouri and Louisiana attorneys general against the Biden administration that accused high-ranking government officials of working with giant social media companies ‘under the guise of combating misinformation’ that ultimately led to censoring speech on topics, including Hunter Biden’s laptop, COVID-19 origins and the efficacy of face masks.

The attorneys general deposed several officials, including Dr. Anthony Fauci and FBI Special Agent Elvis Chan. On July 4, federal Judge Terry A. Doughty of the Fifth Circuit ordered the first injunction, which prevents White House officials and federal agencies from meeting with tech companies about social media censorship, arguing that such actions likely violated the First Amendment.

The scathing Independence Day injunction said the government’s actions during the pandemic were akin to ‘an Orwellian ‘Ministry of Truth.”

‘If the allegations made by Plaintiffs are true, the present case arguably involves the most massive attack against free speech in United States’ history,’ the injunction continues. ‘In their attempts to suppress alleged disinformation, the Federal Government, and particularly the Defendants named here, are alleged to have blatantly ignored the First Amendment’s right to free speech.’

The Justice Department has appealed the court order to the Supreme Court, arguing that the government faced ‘irreparable harm’ because Doughty’s order may prevent the federal government from ‘working with social media companies on initiatives to prevent grave harm to the American people and our democratic processes.’