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.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise also stood up to support McCarthy during the debate on the motion to vacate, saying now isn't the time to stop the progress House Republicans have made.

"When we go back to January, as many people have, we knew that it was going to be a narrow majority," Scalise said. "We also knew it wasn't going to be easy. How many of us came here because we thought this job was going to be easy?"

Scalise continued, "One thing we did know is that if we were going to finally start confronting the problems that had been ignored for years and years and years, we had to change the way this place worked. And one thing Speaker McCarthy embraced from Day 1 is to start making those kind of changes to this institution -- opening up the process, allowing members to be more engaged, having amendments come to the floor, single-subject bills, doing appropriations bills."

"Speaker McCarthy has been leading at the top of the level to make sure we have the tools to do our jobs," he added.

Gaetz said earlier this week he'd support Scalise for speaker and believed other Republicans would, too, telling reporters he thinks "very highly" of the No. 2 House Republican.