WASHINGTON (AP) Staring down a fast-approaching government shutdown that threatens to disrupt life for millions of Americans , Speaker Kevin McCarthy has turned to a strategy that so far has preserved his tenuous hold on House leadership but also marked it by chaos: giving hard-right lawmakers what they want.

In his eight months running the House , McCarthy has lived by the upbeat personal mantra of never give up as he dodges threats to his speakership and tries to portray Republicans as capable stewards of the U.S. government. He has long chided Washington for underestimating him.

But with the House GOP majority in turmoil, all but certain to hurl the country into a shutdown, McCarthy has set aside the more traditional tools of the gavel to keep rebels in line . Instead, he has acceded to a small band led by those instigating his ouster, even if that means closing federal offices.

Its an untested strategy that has left McCarthy deeply frustrated, his allies rushing to his side and his grip on power ever more uncertain with the Sept. 30 deadline to fund the government a week away.

We still have a number of days, McCarthy said Saturday as he arrived at the Capitol.

I think when it gets crunch time people will finally, that have been holding off all this time blaming everybody else, will finally hopefully move off, the California Republican said. Because shutting down and having border agents not be paid, your Coast Guard not get paid I dont see how thats good.

Governing with a narrow House majority, the speaker is facing a more virulent strain of the hard-right tactics that chased the two most recent Republican speakers before him, Reps. John Boehner of Ohio and Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, into early retirement. Like them, McCarthy has tried various tactics to restore order. But more than ever, McCarthy finds himself swept along as far-right lawmakers, determined to bend Washington to their will, take control in the House.

McCarthy tried to win conservatives support by agreeing to their demand for impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden and then by meeting their calls for spending cuts , only to be turned back whenever a few of them hold out for more concessions.