“I don’t think anybody is questioning the legitimacy of the presidential election. I think that is all over with. We’re sitting here with the president today, so, from that point of view, I don’t think that’s a problem.”
— House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), in response to a reporter’s question outside the White House, May 12, 2021
McCarthy had just spent 90 minutes in a White House meeting with President Biden, Vice President Harris and the other congressional leaders when he made these remarks. All participants agreed the discussion on how to fund infrastructure investments was cordial.
Under the old rules of Washington decorum, a gaggle with reporters immediately after the meeting was perhaps not the best time for the House Republican leader to question Biden’s legitimacy as president.
But if that was his calculus, McCarthy was decorous to a fault. Continue reading.