More On:
kevin mccarthy
McCarthy slams Pelosi ‘hypocrisy’ on mask mandates after she calls him ‘moron’
McCarthy pulls GOP picks off new House economic panel amid Pelosi feud
Republicans seek meeting with Biden on better response to Cuba crackdown
‘Can’t spend halftime in opponent’s locker room’: GOP push to oust Cheney, Kinzinger
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and his Republican colleagues blasted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Biden on Thursday for putting the “country in crisis,” pointing to the influx of immigrants at the border, the conflicting guidelines over mask wearing, rising prices of consumer goods and the surging crime rates in American cities.
“We have a country in crisis,” McCarthy (R-Calif.) said during a news conference with other Republican House members on Capitol Hill.
He noted a recent poll that showed that Americans’ optimism about the direction of the country has plunged nearly 20 percentage points since April.
“This should surprise no one in America. Every time Americans go to the checkout at the grocery store or gas station, they’re paying more. Every time they turn on the local or national news, they’re seeing crime continue to surge. Every time they get updates about our southern border, they’re seeing reports about thousands of migrants that are illegally entering our country every single day and not being tested for COVID,” the California lawmaker said.
He also called out the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention‘s new guidance this week suggesting vaccinated people wear masks indoors in areas with high numbers of coronavirus cases — a directive that reversed guidelines the CDC issued in May.
“It punishes Americans who’ve already done everything they were asked to do. They’re told if you’re vaccinated, you wouldn’t have to wear a mask. Think about what the CDC did just this week. They forced vaccinated Americans to wear masks because of a study in India about a vaccine that’s not even in America that has not been peer reviewed,” he said without elaborating on the India study.
But the Delta variant, which is behind the surge of coronavirus cases that led the CDC to change its recommendations, first surfaced in India.
McCarthy accused the Democrats of politicizing the CDC and pointed out that while the House must abide by a mask mandate, the Senate does not.
Standing on the Capitol steps, McCarthy said you can see the Senate on the other side.
“Not quite sure where the CDC got, but somewhere in the middle of that dome, the science changes. If you are a Capitol Police officer, you got orders that … if a vaccinated staffer comes across outside without a mask, you’re ordered to arrest them,” he said.
“This is not the America we know. This is not Pelosi’s house, this is the people’s house,” he continued.
McCarthy said he and House Republicans will make a pledge to Americans.
“We will not allow the CDC to be political. We’ll base decisions on science, and we will fight for the American people. The goal is simple. Back to work, back to school, back to health, and back to normal,” he said.
see also
“If they can take the nation’s capital, and in one building, tell you the science is different from one side to the other, they could do the same throughout the nation. Republican Congress will not allow this to happen,” he said.
He also said the Republicans want a speaker who takes time to “understand the science, instead of just calling people names,” referring to Pelosi (D-Calif.) calling him a “moron” over his objection to the mask mandate in the House.
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) of Staten Island slammed Democrats and the Biden administration for the surging levels of crime in America’s big cities, including New York.
”I can tell you that these cities run by radical Democrats that have decided it was a good idea to tie the hands of police departments and cut their funding are seeing record high levels of crime in their cities, and it’s got to stop. Government’s first responsibility is to protect its citizenry,” she said, ticking off the cities where crime is on the rise, including Washington, DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Minneapolis.
“We have seen the radical left take away those resources from our police and the citizens are suffering,” Malliotakis said.
She said “what’s happening in my city of New York” cannot be allowed to happen in other American cities, citing a 73 percent jump in shootings in the Big Apple in June.
She blamed Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s support of bail reform for the rising crime rates.
“We have seen 50 percent of criminals who are arrested for shooting someone being put back on the streets, and nine out of 10 people who are arrested with illegal firearms are released the very next day,” she said.
Malliotakis cited the gunpoint robbery of an 88-year-old grandmother of a necklace in broad daylight in Brooklyn as “the latest example of the ridiculous things that are happening in our cities” because of the Democrats’ policies.
“We stand for law and order. We support our police. And we will continue to push back against those hypocrites who want to abolish the police to defund the police and then they walk around with their own personal security,” she said.