McCarthy: GOP Has 'Changed for the Better' Under Trump's Leadership
Recent criticism of the current state of the Republican Party from a centrist Republican is way off the mark, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said Sunday.
On Thursday, former House Speaker John Boehner bemoaned the current state of the GOP under President Donald Trump.
“There is no Republican Party. There’s a Trump party,” the Ohio Republican said, according to CNN. “The Republican Party is kind of taking a nap somewhere.”
In May 2017, Boehner had branded Trump’s initial months in office “a complete disaster.”
His more recent jab led to McCarthy, a possible replacement for House Speaker Paul Ryan after the Wisconsin Republican retires at the end of the year, being asked on CNN’s “State of the Union” about the changes in the GOP.
“I would think it changed for the better,” the California Republican said, according to the Washington Examiner.
McCarthy said the Trump administration and Republican Congress have already made an indelible impression upon America.
“I’m proud of this Republican Party. I’m proud of what we have been able to achieve — 2 million more jobs in America,” he said.
McCarthy said that the GOP is changing America for the better for everyone.
“We’re at 3.8 percent unemployment. This ties a 50-year low in America. African-American and women are at the lowest in unemployment,” McCarthy said, according to the Washington Free Beacon.
“Unemployment claims are at a 44-year low. The G.I. Bill is now no longer 15 years or you lose it, it’s now for a lifetime.”
McCarthy said under GOP leadership, America might finally rein in North Korea.
“One thing we’ve never even talked about in this discussion, come June 12, North Korea is sitting down talking about dismantling their nuclear weapons,” McCarthy said.
“Yes, we are working hard — exactly what we said we would do. That is a proud Republican Party. That is a party that stands on their principles. That is part of what we ran on. That is part of what we said we would do, and you know what? We’re accomplishing it,” he said.
The California Republican noted that he is also proud of GOP cooperation with special counsel Robert Mueller, who has spent the past year trying to find facts that will buttress claims of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
“The president said let’s get to the bottom of this,” McCarthy said, per Newsmax. “We have spent millions of dollars and investigated it in the House. We have investigated it in the Senate. We are looking for is there any collusion — and there has been no collusion. The legal teams can argue about what they can and cannot do.”
“One thing I found is that the White House has been cooperating.”
In a Sunday appearance on “Fox & Friends,” former Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said both Trump and the party are going strong.
.@Reince: “If the Republican party becomes the permanent party of the American worker we will never lose a national election again.” pic.twitter.com/JtyFULzt3U
— Fox News (@FoxNews) June 3, 2018
“As far as this issue is concerned, look, not since Ronald Reagan and I say maybe even beyond Reagan, President Trump had a personality and a persona and a brand that is so unique, not just to American politics but to the country — that he sort of owns this piece of real estate,” Priebus said.
“(T)he Republican Party is a big entity. But, more than ever before. The Trump brand is a huge entity. And it intersects each other about 85 percent of all of the things that Trump and the party believe in,” he said.
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