House Freedom Caucus wants Rep. Nancy Pelosi ousted from the speakership

The conservative House Freedom Caucus wants House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to be removed from her leadership post in the congressional chamber.

"We, the House Freedom Caucus, respectfully request that you pursue the authorization of the House Republican Conference, pursuant to Conference rules, to file and bring up a privileged motion by July 31, 2021 to vacate the chair and end Nancy Pelosi's authoritarian reign as Speaker of the House," the group wrote in a Friday letter to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

Pelosi, a California Democrat, has served as a U.S. congresswoman for more than three decades.

She is the only woman ever to serve as House speaker, a post which falls just behind the vice president in the presidential line of succession. The long-serving lawmaker held the post from early 2007 until early 2011. Democrats eventually regained the majority and Pelosi has again served as speaker from early 2019 until the present.

"Speaker Pelosi's tenure is destroying the House of Representatives and our ability to faithfully represent the people we are here to serve. Speaker Pelosi has championed unconstitutional changes like allowing proxy voting and insulting security measures like metal detectors for Members coming to the floor to vote," the Freedom Caucus said in the letter.

The group's push to oust Pelosi comes on the heels of her decision to reject two of the five lawmakers that McCarthy named as his picks to serve on a select committee tasked with investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

"Unless Speaker Pelosi reverses course and seats all five Republican nominees, Republicans will not be party to their sham process and will instead pursue our own investigation of the facts," McCarthy said in a statement blasting Pelosi's move.

The only two House Republicans to vote in favor of establishing the select committee were Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois. The two lawmakers were among the 10 House Republicans who voted in favor of impeaching then-President Trump earlier this year in the wake of the Jan. 6 Capitol breach. Cheney is one of the people Pelosi has named to serve on the select committee.

"Less easily reversible is the damage done to the institution by the Leadership of one party dictating the ability of Members of another party to serve in roles at the discretion of their own conference. That abuse cannot go unchecked. Speaker Pelosi's refusal to seat Rep. Jim Jordan and Rep. Jim Banks on the Select Committee to Investigate January 6 is intolerable," the Freedom Caucus's letter declared.

"That this follows the intolerable action of unseating another Republican from her committees makes clear that Speaker Pelosi has no interest in representative democracy, let alone protecting institutional norms. Republicans, under your leadership, must show the American people that we will act to protect our ability to represent their interests," the Freedom Caucus wrote to McCarthy.

While the letter does not identify a specific lawmaker, earlier this year the House voted 230-199 to remove freshman Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committee assignments. Eleven GOP legislators were among those who voted to strip Greene of her committee assignments.