House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is offering words of advice to his caucus ahead of the midterm elections, identifying listening to the people as the “most important thing” lawmakers can do and emphasizing that the Republican road to the majority “bypasses Washington D.C.”
“The most important thing is to listen to people, because when you listen, you’ll hear the concerns, and you’ll be prepared to be able to find ways to solve them,” McCarthy told the Washington Examiner, emphasizing the importance of lawmakers connecting directly with the American people rather than getting distracted by issues within the D.C. bubble.
“The Republicans’ road to the majority bypasses Washington, D.C., and that means bypassing Washington, D.C., press as well,” he explained, noting the focus should remain on the “hardworking American taxpayer” moving forward.
“That is where our focus is going to be. You’ve got millions of kids who are out of school, and they’ve been out of school for more than a year. You’ve got people out of work. Why aren’t we focused on the two fundamental items that put us back on track?” he asked.
McCarthy’s remarks come as Republicans in the House gear up ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, hoping to take the House from Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) grip. House Democrats have one of the smallest majorities in over a century, with the current press gallery tabulation reporting 219 Democrats and 211 Republicans.
McCarthy has been attempting to walk the line in uniting his fractured party, particularly following the ousting of former GOP Conference Chair and prolific Republican establishment figure Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), whom he criticized on a hot mic, confessing to have “lost confidence” in her. Republicans ultimately removed her as conference chair earlier this month.
All the while, McCarthy has lodged criticism at anti-establishment members of the Republican caucus as well, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA). On Tuesday, he released a statement criticizing the 46-year-old congresswoman who weighed in on Food City’s way of identifying vaccinated employees.
“Vaccinated employees get a vaccination logo just like the Nazi’s forced Jewish people to wear a gold star,” she said, adding that vaccine passports and mask mandates “create discrimination against unvaxxed people who trust their immune systems to a virus that is 99% survivable.”
The House Republican Conference, via McCarthy, condemned her language, although Greene adamantly emphasized she “never compared it to the Holocaust, only the discrimination against Jews in early Nazi years”:
Marjorie is wrong, and her intentional decision to compare the horrors of the Holocaust with wearing masks is appalling.
Let me be clear: the House Republican Conference condemns this language.
My full statement: https://t.co/KnliN3YbJ2
— Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) May 25, 2021
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