McCarthy needed Democrats to save job. South Florida's congressional reps took a pass.

South Florida Democrats weren’t interested in saving Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday.

U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel, a decade-long congressional Democrat representing West Palm Beach, said she agreed on one point with the far-right firebrand who started the motion to fire McCarthy — Florida U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Pensacola. That one point, she said, was that "Kevin McCarthy cannot be trusted."

"This place is dysfunctional, but, you know what, it's dysfunctional because of the Republicans, they are the ones fighting. And we can't really heal them. They have to heal themselves," Frankel said.

Frankel's frustrations with McCarthy included the California Republican's accusations that the debt ceiling negotiation standoffs last May were the fault of Democrats.

U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, a Democrat who represents a West Palm Beach congressional district, said in an interview prior to the vote that she planned to vote against McCarthy.

"I think that all of us who are trying to lead our districts around the country, we realize that we've come to a place where we can't work with someone who's a known liar," Cherfilus-McCormick said.

Freshman Democrat U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz, who represents a district that includes parts of Palm Beach County, showed no inclination to help McCarthy fend off the challenge by another Florida congressman, U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Pensacola.

He voted against McCarthy, too.

"I do not believe this is time for celebration," Moskowitz wrote on X, formerly Twitter, early Tuesday. "Our institutions are in great peril. But that is not the fault of the Democrats."

U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, said the matter was a "Republican crisis" and she would not cast a vote to "bail" them out.

“House Republicans are in chaos and the extreme conservatives in control of Congress right now only want paralysis and dysfunction,” Wasserman Schultz said in a statement. “I will not embolden extremists, and I will not vote to bail out a Speaker who enables them and who simply cannot be trusted. This is a Republican crisis that only they can solve.”

U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson of Miami Gardens also voted thumbs down on McCarthy.

McCarthy could only afford to lose four Republican votes if all 212 House Democrats voted yes to the motion to vacate, a parliamentary term for getting the boot. But the California Republican has been widely criticized by Democratic lawmakers for supporting an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden with scant evidence so far and by fellow GOP lawmakers for a spending deal with Democrats to avoid a government shutdown Oct. 1.

U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-South Carolina, said McCarthy also infuriated many Democrats by blaming them for brinkmanship on the federal government shutdown when in fact it was the opposition party's votes that got a temporary funding bill approved in the House.

Stephany Matat is a politics reporter for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY-Florida network. Reach her at smatat@pbpost.com. Support local journalism: Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: South Florida Democrats won't help Speaker Kevin McCarthy retain job