Speaker Pro Tem Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) ordered Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to vacate her Capitol hideaway office so he could take it over, just hours after becoming acting Speaker, Pelosi’s office said Tuesday.
McHenry became acting Speaker after Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) was ousted from the role Tuesday, the first time a Speaker has been voted out of the job.
McHenry’s office requested that Pelosi vacate her Capitol hideaway office by Wednesday because it was being re-allocated “for speaker office use,” the message, first reported by Politico, reads. A small number of senior Representatives have “hideaway offices” inside the Capitol Building.
Pelosi denounced the demand in a statement late Tuesday.
“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,” she continued. “As Speaker, I gave former Speaker Hastert a significantly larger suite of offices for as long as he wished.”
She called on McHenry and House Republicans to focus instead on legislation.
“Office space doesn’t matter to me, but it seems to be important to them. Now that the new Republican Leadership has settled this important matter, let’s hope they get to work on what’s truly important for the American people,” she said.
Pelosi is in California in preparation for the memorial services of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) later this week. She did not vote on the motion to vacate Tuesday.
“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,” she added.
The Hill has reached out to McHenry’s office for comment.
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