OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy hopes to someday be awarded the Speaker’s gavel now held by his California Democratic colleague, Nancy Pelosi, and he took time on Sunday to address that very issue.
In an interview with Fox News host Maria Bartiromo’s “Sunday Morning Futures” program, McCarthy discussed rumors that Pelosi was considering retirement ahead of what many believe is shaping up to be a Democratic political washout a year from now during the midterm elections.
“I wonder if [House] Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi [D-Calif.] will even be here,” he speculated.
“She acts like a lame-duck Speaker,” he said. “She seems like she is on a farewell tour.”
Earlier, CNN reported:
After taking back the House in 2018, Nancy Pelosi called herself “a bridge to the next generation of leaders” and agreed to a deal: she’d serve again as speaker for no more than four years.
Time is now ticking — and no one knows what Pelosi will do in 2022.
Confidantes of the 81-year-old speaker reject any rumors she might quit before the end of this Congress, saying doing so would only embolden Republicans and undercut her ability to raise millions to save her party’s imperiled majority. She has yet to say if she will mount a reelection bid next year, though her campaign continues to raise millions in case she runs for the seat she’s held since 1987.
While Pelosi has previously indicated that this is her last term as speaker, she hasn’t completely shut the door quite yet, fueling speculation she could ultimately seek to prolong her 18-year tenure ruling the House Democratic caucus.
“Everyone assumes this is her last term, but no one knows for sure,” one of the confidantes said to CNN. “People don’t realize how hard it was to win (the speaker’s race) last time.”
In his interview with Bartiromo, the Minority Leader also discussed his eight-hour marathon House floor speech last week aimed at delaying a vote on President Biden’s massive “Build Back Better” legislation, which passed essentially along party lines.
Declaring that the Biden administration every day proves that “big government socialism isn’t working,” he added that lessons from a year of “one-party rule” by Democrats are clear.
“What we really found was … big government socialism isn’t working. It is not working when we have the highest inflation in 31 years. These gas prices — the big government cripples American industry but begs OPEC and Russia to produce more. When our military is focused on woke-ism instead of defeating and winning and keeping up with China,” he said.
“We watched our attorney general now in a big government socialism, turns and goes after parents. … that’s what drove me to keep talking [against the Build Back Better bill]. So the American people could understand,” he added.
McCarthy began his epic Friday speech noting, “If I sound angry, I am.”
“I’m just getting geared up, go just sit,” he said several hours later. At another point, he noted, “I know you don’t like me, but that’s OK.”
In the end, the speech did not stop passage of the nearly $2 trillion measure, but McCarthy remains defiant.
“We know that the president and the Democrats have been lying to us all along, saying the bill was paid for,” he said.
“Even if you listen to the chief of staff who would brag that this bill is bigger than the New Deal, that they are spending more than America spent to win World War II,” he said.
“But why? For bigger government. This is what happens when you have one-party rule.”
Newsmax added:
The legislation is among the most expensive in years — and is similarly astounding in its reach, It rewrites tax, health care, environment, education, housing and other policies, shoring up low- and middle-income families, helping the elderly and combating climate change.
McCarthy suggested there’ll be a price to pay for Democrats as well.
The Democrats “know that they are going to lose the majority” in the House, he continued, adding: “They know what their policies have done to America and they know by voting what they just did that they are trying to lock in.”
