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Notes -
Notably McCarthy has not asked for support from the Democrats. Probably correctly realizing that doing that weakens his position with his own party. If the Democrats want to make things awkward for him, voting for him is exactly the way to do it. He wins this vote, sure, but it's a terrible look for him and he would probably be gone in a month or two.
This is not a backstab, because it is what McCarthy expected to happen. Remember winning the vote is not the only thing at stake here for him. Losing clean is probably preferable to winning due to your opponents voting for you. It would taint him for close to a third of his House brethren.
The Democrats best way to help him is to stay out of it, which means voting against him, so doing what they are expected to do. If any of them do vote for him, that will be the interesting scenario.
The Democrats could have stayed out of it by voting "present", which would have left the discharge position dead by a large majority.
I think Republican representatives would have (correctly in my opinion) have seen that as Democrats helping him out.
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