House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) heads to the U.S.-Mexico border on Monday to lead the desperate right-wing attempt to declare the admission of unaccompanied children seeking safety from violence a “crisis.”
This is the same Kevin McCarthy that perpetrated the Big Lie that the 2020 election was marked by fraud, voted against certifying the presidential results, voted against holding former President Trump accountable for inciting the armed insurrection aimed at members of Congress, and defends the presence of Q-Anon-adjacent members of his own caucus.
The mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 wanted to kidnap and kill Vice President Pence and members of Congress. Even after blood had been spilled, lives had been lost and the temple of democracy sacked, Kevin McCarthy joined with the 147 Republicans (139 House members and 8 Senators) to vote against certifying the presidential election results. Despite the fact that Donald Trump helped stoke and encourage the mob’s attack, Kevin McCarthy led House Republicans to oppose impeachment by a 197-10 margin.
Now, McCarthy and his fellow Republicans want all of us to believe that the existential threat to America and our democracy is a bunch of dark-skinned children who are seeking safety from violence.
- Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy: “Call it what it is ⇨ The Biden Border Crisis.”
- Senator Lindsey Graham: “…and eventually it’s going to be a national security crisis because they are children today, but they could easily be terrorists tomorrow.”
- Texas Governor Greg Abbott: Biden “does not care about Americans. He cares more about people who are not from this country.”
- Donald Trump: “Our country is being destroyed at the Southern border, a terrible thing to see!”
- Senator Ted Cruz: “No reasonable, rational person at home is sitting there thinking, ‘we need more murderers, we need more rapists,’ and that’s what Biden’s immigration plan says.”
- Rep. Steve Scalise: “There are super-spreader caravans coming across our southern border … The Biden administration’s agenda is to open America’s borders and close America’s schools.”
According to Frank Sharry, Executive Director of America’s Voice:
When he’s not defending Dr. Seuss or opposing COVID-19 relief, McCarthy is focused on the ‘threat’ of teenagers fleeing for their lives and throwing themselves at the mercy of a nation that once called itself a City on the Hill.
This is what the Republican Party has come to: white nationalists are good, they’re an essential part of our base; non-white refugee children are bad, they’re an existential threat to America.
His motives are easy to discern: he is using racism strategically to distract from the multiple GOP failures regarding the pandemic, the economy and our democracy. He wants to change the subject from the January 6th attacks on our Capitol, and set up a line of attack on the very popular path to citizenship bills the House will take up next week.
His very Trumpy strategy is very obvious. And similar to the way Trump’s nativism backfired with the multiracial majority over the past four years, we predict this gambit will, too.
