Voters, if you care about honesty and integrity, don’t give Kevin McCarthy your vote
Does Kevin McCarthy deserve voter support when that means backing someone who is lying?
Two-faced and duplicitous are other ways to describe McCarthy’s behavior. So are: unprincipled and lacking character.
Fresno County Republican voters in McCarthy’s newly drawn 20th District face a serious dilemma this June. As fate and redistricting would have it, Clovis-area voters will now find McCarthy on their ballots after years of being represented by Devin Nunes. It’s swapping one terrible choice for another, one power-hungry congressional Republican more concerned with pleasing former President Donald Trump than voters than themselves.
The only difference is that McCarthy seems to want more power than Nunes did and seems ready to do or say anything to continue leading the Republican caucus — or be Speaker of the House of Representatives if his party earns a majority this fall.
Nunes, of course, left the House of Representatives at the end of December to lead former President Donald Trump’s social media company. He had served in Congress since 2002. He eventually chaired the influential House Intelligence Committee in the early part of Trump’s tenure.
A Kern County politician, McCarthy’s new district reaches all the way from Bakersfield to Clovis — if voters elect him.
McCarthy was first elected in 2006 and has steadily risen to now being the GOP leader in the House.
His great aspiration is to dethrone Democrat Nancy Pelosi as House speaker; at that level, he would be second in the line of succession should the president be incapacitated. Only the vice president goes before the House speaker.
McCarthy can seek the speaker’s post if Republicans win back the House later this year. McCarthy will also have to stay on the good side of Trump and his followers in the House. He needs their votes to become speaker.
Trump loyalists will have new questions for McCarthy, however, in light of a New York Times story about how McCarthy spoke to colleagues about Trump’s removal from office after the Jan. 6 rioting at the Capitol.
In a phone call with Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, McCarthy said Trump should resign.
“The only discussion I would have with him is that I think this (impeachment) will pass, and it would be my recommendation you should resign,” McCarthy says in the recording.
McCarthy denied he had ever said that quote. In a statement, he said: “The New York Times reporting on me is totally false and wrong. It comes as no surprise that the corporate media is obsessed with doing everything it can to further a liberal agenda.”
Then MSNBC played the audio clip in which McCarthy says those very words.
In another audio clip obtained by The Times, McCarthy said this about Trump: “I’ve had it with this guy. What he did is unacceptable. Nobody can defend that, and nobody should defend it.”
Voters will decide
So, in the days immediately after the Jan. 6 riot, McCarthy put the blame where it rightly belonged — on Trump.
But then on Jan. 28, McCarthy went to see Trump in Florida and made amends. He has since backed off criticizing the former president over the attack on the Capitol, and voted against impeaching him.
So it is up to the voters. McCarthy knows the truth about Trump but refuses to publicly acknowledge it after his one brief moment of clarity with Cheney.
What do voters want?
Voters, do you want someone with moral courage, integrity, and strong principles, who will stand for what is right, not just what is partisan?
If you don’t care, then Kevin McCarthy would love to have your vote.
