Senate Republicans are overwhelmingly admonishing their House colleagues for allowing McCarthy's speakership to be vacated, calling it a "sad day."

Sen. John Cornyn of Texas said ousting McCarthy was a "disgraceful" move by a small group of House conservatives.

"These insurgents have no plan," Cornyn said. "And now they've created even more chaos and it's not good for the House, it's not good for Republicans," he said.

A visibly miffed Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi agreed: "It stinks, and it's bad for the country."

Republicans are the minority party in the Senate. With a much more favorable map on the horizon in 2024, some now worry the dysfunction in the House will be a distraction for voters.

-ABC News' Allison Pecorin

The White House confirmed late Tuesday afternoon that President Joe Biden saw the developments in the House, but the administration is declining to weigh in on congressional politics.

Instead, aides said Biden is focused on governing and they pointed to the announcement earlier Tuesday on drugmakers agreeing to take part in Medicare negotiations.

-ABC News' Justin Gomez

McCarthy exited the chamber declining to comment after the House voted to remove him.

Several members in GOP leadership are currently meeting inside McCarthy's office. Republicans are slated to gather behind closed doors on Tuesday evening for a conference meeting.

McCarthy shook his head slightly when the presiding officer slammed the gavel after the roll call vote.

Gaetz spoke to reporters outside the Capitol just moments after his motion to vacate succeeded.

"The stages of grief are in progress," he said.

The Florida Republican floated names for who could become the next speaker. On his list were House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer and Oklahoma Rep. Kevin Hern.

Gaetz said he will "absolutely not" put himself forward for speakership.

From the moment McCarthy was elected speaker, it was clear that his ability to keep that job could depend on Democrats.

To get elected on that 15th ballot in January, McCarthy had to agree to a series of rules that made him a profoundly weak speaker -- including the provision allowing a single member of the House to call for a vote to oust him (the now-famous "motion to vacate"). But while it takes just one member to call for such a vote, it requires a majority to actually remove the speaker.

McCarthy could survive a rebellion from a handful of renegade Republicans -- but he could not survive such a rebellion if Democrats go along with it.

Gaetz has said he expected Democrats to save McCarthy. Many others did too.

As recently as Tuesday morning, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries suggested a way out of this for McCarthy. In an interview on MSNBC, he said House rules should be changed so that a single member could not force a vote on removing the speaker. Jeffries could deliver the votes to save McCarthy's job and the votes to change the rules to make it impossible for Gaetz to pull off a stunt like this again.

But Democrats would have a price for doing that. What would McCarthy offer in return? An end to the impeachment inquiry in President Joe Biden and his family? A guarantee that McCarthy honors the deal he struck on spending with the White House? Power sharing?

McCarthy has developed a cordial relationship with Jeffries, but he signaled no willingness to give Democrats anything in exchange for keeping the job.

In fact, McCarthy's actions have made it virtually impossible for Jeffries to throw him a lifeline. The speaker unilaterally launched the impeachment inquiry and just Saturday infuriated Jeffries by attempting to jam Democrats on a bill to keep the government funded for 45 days.

Back in January -- and again last month on impeachment -- McCarthy showed he was willing to do almost anything to appease his right-wing critics to get and keep his job. That worked for a while -- but it has made it virtually impossible to get Democrats to save him now.

-ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl