Tag: Kevin McCarthy

‘Clean up your mess, Kevin’: Hakeem Jeffries slams House Minority Leader McCarthy for demanding Maxine Waters’ censure

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House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has been calling for a censure of Rep. Maxine Waters in response to her recent comment that if former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is acquitted on the charges he is facing in connection with George Floyd’s death, activists should be “confrontational.” And McCarthy was the target of some scathing comments from Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, who found it laughable than he was so offended by Waters’ rhetoric in light of the extremists who are welcome in the GOP in 2021.

Jeffries, on the House floor, declared, “When you think that Kevin McCarthy has the nerve to say something about anyone when he supported the violent insurrection after the mob attacked the Capitol, threatened to assassinate Nancy Pelosi, kill other members of Congress, hang Mike Pence. He then came back to the Capitol, voted to support the Big Lie — which ignited the violent insurrection — and continues to play footsie with Donald Trump. When you’ve got a situation where Lauren Boebert is a mess. Matt Gaetz is a mess. Marjorie Taylor Greene is a mess. Clean up your mess, Kevin.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has defended Waters, saying that the California congressman was advocating peaceful protest, not violence. And she is opposed to censuring Waters. Continue reading.

House rejects GOP resolution to censure Waters

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The House on Tuesday rejected a Republican resolution to censure Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) for saying that “we’ve got to get more confrontational” about police brutality against African Americans.

Lawmakers voted along party lines 216-210, with no defections on either side, to table the resolution from Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) that would have issued the chamber’s harshest disapproval short of expulsion.

Republicans argued that Waters incited violence with her remarks at a protest over the weekend in Minneapolis, where tensions are spiking over the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former police officer who’s charged with the murder of George Floyd, and the recent police killing of Daunte Wright. Continue reading.

McCarthy slammed for threatening Maxine Waters with censure: ‘She didn’t incite an insurrection’

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House Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is under fire after threatening U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), the chair of the Financial Services Committee, with censure and claiming she “broke the law.” Waters is being used by the right as a straw man after she traveled to Minnesota to speak with Black Lives Matter protestors and telling them they must continue confrontations.

“We’ve got to stay on the street and we’ve got to get more active, we’ve got to get more confrontational. We’ve got to make sure that they know that we mean business,” Waters said on Saturday as activists protested the killing of 20-year old Daunte Wright by a Brooklyn Center police officer.

Waters on Monday clarified her remarks after right wing uproar. Continue reading.

Maxine Waters rips GOP criticism: ‘I’m not going to be bullied’

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Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) ripped GOP lawmakers in a Monday interview, saying they were trying to “send a message” to white supremacists with their criticism of her. 

“I am nonviolent,” Waters told The Grio on Monday after House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) accused her of condoning political violence by stating supporters of racial justice and Black Lives Matter should be “more confrontational.”  

“Republicans will jump on any word, any line and try to make it fit their message and their cause for denouncing us and denying us, basically calling us violent … any time they see an opportunity to seize on a word, so they do it and they send a message to all of the white supremacists, the KKK, the Oath Keepers, the [Proud] Boys and all of that, how this is a time for [Republicans] to raise money on [Democrats’] backs,” Waters said.  Continue reading.

Kevin McCarthy argued GOP is the party of Abraham Lincoln, not racism. It did not go well

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After four years of a Republican President who worked almost daily to spread or lend support to racism, white nationalism, or white supremacism – including having top advisors inside the White House who embraced those ideologies – House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy is having a hard time tamping down the Pandora’s Box of hate Donald Trump unleashed.

McCarthy has refused to take a strong stand against the most dangerous members of his caucus, trying to allow the extremist Congressmen and Congresswomen to actively lie, disrupt House business, and spread hate on a daily basis. Because they are raising millions.

In response to Republican white supremacist members of Congress Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Paul Gosar of Arizona announcing they are forming the “America First Caucus,” McCarthy tried to stand up to those radicals, as Forbes notes, via tweet. Continue reading.

GOP memo urges ‘rebrand’ as ‘the working class party’ — by embracing ‘Donald Trump’s gift’

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Although former President Donald Trump has been gone from the White House for two months, his far-right brand of pseudo-populism — which was greatly influenced by Patrick Buchanan — continues to have a major effect on the GOP. And this week, according to Axios reporter Jonathan Swan, two House Republicans — House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana — discussed a memo calling for the GOP to market itself as the “working class” party in the 2022 midterms.

The March 30 memo, written by Banks and addressed to McCarthy, is titled “Cementing GOP as the Working Class Party.” And it argues that Republicans, in 2022, need to embrace Trump voters and Trump’s ideas.

In the memo, Banks — who heads the Republican Study Committee — emphasizes, “Our electoral success in the 2022 midterm election will be determined by our willingness to embrace our new coalition. House Republicans can broaden our electorate, increase voter turnout, and take back the House by enthusiastically rebranding and reorienting as the Party of the Working Class…. There is an embittered and loud minority in the GOP that finds our new coalition distasteful, but President Trump’s gift didn’t come with a receipt.” Continue reading.

Fox News throws GOP leader’s attacks on Eric Swalwell back in his face amid Matt Gaetz sex trafficking probe

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Fox News host Dana Perino on Wednesday put House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) on the hot seat over revelations that Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) is being probed by the FBI for potential sex trafficking charges.

While appearing on Fox News, McCarthy was reminded by Perino of his past statements that Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) should be removed from the House Intelligence Committee after revelations that a suspected Chinese spy had infiltrated his office.

“So by that same logic, will you take any action to remove Matt Gaetz from the Judiciary Committee while he’s under investigation by the DOJ over whether he had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old and paid for her to travel with him?” she asked. Continue reading.

McCarthy faces Twitter storm after trying to ‘rewrite history’ of support for Trump’s attempted coup

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House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Thursday attempted to backpedal on his support of former President Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

During an appearance on CNN, news anchor Manu Raju asked the top-ranking Republican lawmaker about the double standard surrounding his support of Trump’s efforts to invalidate the election results while criticizing Democrats for contesting the results of an Iowa Congressional race.

McCarthy attempted to suggest that he did not support Trump’s efforts as he insisted Raju’s remarks were inaccurate. “You’re saying something that is not true,” the California Republican said. Continue reading.

Kevin McCarthy buried by ex-GOP staffer for ‘rolling over’ and becoming Trump’s ‘good dog’

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In a column for the Bulwark, a former speechwriter for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) claimed that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has given up all pretense of being his own man and now does Donald Trump’s bidding — even if it means contradicting his own previous statements.

Under a biting headline that reads, “Kevin McCarthy, Fetch,” Amanda Carpenter took the senior Republican to task for performing for Trump while on TV in exchange for “belly rubs and treats.”

Setting the stage, she wrote, “Some dog lovers believe that what makes their canine companions wonderful is their ability to ‘live in the moment’—meaning that, although they can be trained and obedient, and can learn to recognize and remember things they love and things they fear, they don’t have distinct memories of the past, let alone an ability to plan for the future. These dogs—or so the thinking goes—love their owners unconditionally. And they just want to submit and play nice for belly rubs and treats,” before complimenting the New York Times’ Julie Hirschfeld Davis for once observing McCarthy as a “golden retriever of a man who hates to be by himself.” Continue reading.

GOP leaders clash over Trump presence at CPAC

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Two Republican leaders disagreed over former President Trump while standing feet away from each other at a press conference on Wednesday. 

The awkward moment between House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and House Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) during the House Republican leadership press conference highlighted the division over the future of the GOP.

When asked whether Trump should speak at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, McCarthy — who served as one of Trump’s move vocal allies in Congress during the course of his administration — quickly asserted he believes that yes, Trump “should” be present at the annual GOP event slated to take place in Orlando, Fla., this weekend. It will be Trump’s first public political speech since leaving office. Continue reading.