.png)
"McCarthy Can't Be Speaker" Transcript:
David Bozell: Kevin McCarthy, listen, there's this big, well, big... He finally addresses the Republican Caucus this morning, after these new round of tapes. First off, how do you allow yourself to be taped if you're Kevin McCarthy? For God's sakes, how do you allow yourself to be taped like that? I mean, you got to take proper precautions. There's got to be a penalty. You got to do your own investigation. How were you taped? How was your audio taped and how was it leaked? I mean, a lot of people want to point to Cheney and Cheney's staff, and maybe. I guess that's the most likely scenario, but look, he's got enemies all up and down the Capitol.
Except today, he apparently addresses the Republican Caucus after these remarks have been leaked and he gets a standing ovation. Guys, he can't be speaker. Okay? He just can't! And Steve Cortes from Newsmax, he has a video on Twitter and he goes through the political implication of this decision facing Republicans in the House, do you make Kevin McCarthy your speaker?
He is polling worse than Mitch McConnell. He's polling worse than Nancy Pelosi. There's no reason for it. If the Republicans win in November and reclaim control of the House, it's not going to be because of Kevin McCarthy, it's not. He's a good fundraiser. I'll give him props for that. But he has no message. It's not like he's been tip of the spear on activism. It's not as if he taught Republicans how to equip themselves well in the House. It's not like they've done much under his minority stewardship. It's not like they've been vanguards for freedom or prosperity or virtue or any of these things under his stewardship. He's just sort of twisting in the wind. He puts his finger in the air, see where the wind blows.
So, maybe the argument is, oh, we can mold him because he's moldable and he has no principles. I mean, his principle is going to be spending your money. That's what his principle is going to be. It's all he's got. It's all he really knows how to do, is to concoct a plan to spend your money. If Republicans reclaim control of the House, it's because of YOU, the activists, of people who take their communications and digital communications seriously for getting the message out about Joe Biden in spite of a liberal media that carries Joe Biden's water every single day. It's destroying Joe Biden, Democratic policy prescriptions piece by piece, never giving the Left a free day. That's our motto at ForAmerica. As catchy as that might be, it's YOU, the audience that does that. It's YOU, the audience that supplies your peers with information, with the truth.
In fact, Kevin McCarthy, he hasn't done anything to deserve a promotion. And so the member that you go vote for in November, make sure you ask him or her who's their vote going to be for speaker. And I know the political dynamics, no one, that's what kills me, but it's just the reality. No one is going to announce their run for speaker, unless it's known that Kevin will not be speaker, that's just the way this town is going to work.
Photo: Samuel Corum/Getty Images
And so there are a lot of people that are formulating that plan and making sure that they have the right allies on their side, in the event of, but they'll never announce it ahead of time. And those people could be the ones responsible for the leaks, you just don't know, may not be Cheney, maybe people who want his job. It may not be someone who has an ax to grind like Cheney. It may be somebody who wants his job. So, that's kind of who I think it is, but that's an endless list of probably two dozen House members that would accept that call to be Speaker of the House.
But regardless of the tapes, even though I think that's a huge failure and he should be held account for not investigating the source of how he's been taped. I mean, he compromises anybody he speaks with. And you can't vote for a guy who won't go after someone who tapes his own conversations. You just can't do that. At a minimum, I want to see what he does there on that front.
I hope to God it's not one of our conservative heroes, which it could be. If you're being honest, could be. Some of those people don't want to see Kevin in there, so it could be one of them. So we got to play that one straight. But I hope to God it isn't, because that would not be cool. You can't just be leaking private conversations, you can't. I don't care what they say, it's private. And I don't need a leak to tell me that he doesn't like conservatives. I don't need to hear him on audio. I don't need to see McConnell in print having his off-the-record comments become record that he doesn't like Trump. I know that, I get it. So do you, you don't need to hear it on audio. I'm not even going to bother pulling it up. But I do expect them to be able to hold a conversation without being taped and have it released, that's not cool.
And you may say, well, that's not fair. Well, life ain't fair, but I want to see maximum effort to out who did it. And I want to see that effort come out of McCarthy's office. But politically speaking, Steve Cortes is right. There's no reason to elect him speaker. It's not going to do anything for the cause. He'll be milk toast at best. You're not going to mold him as much as you think he might. And you're going to be left complaining and disappointed.
So, the work starts now in terms of getting someone to step up to that plate. Somebody has got to want that job, guys, somebody, somebody has got to want the gig. Some people will say, "Well, all that's necessary is for Kevin not to be in the running, then someone will show up." Okay, maybe, maybe. I'd prefer somebody who wants the job, that's just me. They don't even have to be the most conservative. I think that's an important criteria. That's a hell of a job. As a Speaker of the House, you got to know where, however many members you have, let's say 240. You got to know what they're doing at 2:00 AM, all of them, that's part of the gig. It's like a football coach at a college team three times the size. You got to know where all your players are. You have to have systems in place to know what everybody's doing. That's just part of the modern gig.
Maybe he wants it, maybe he's willing to do that. Kevin, that is. And I know he wants it. And I know he's willing to do that. However, if you can't control your own house, you can't control your own phone calls, I don't know how much good you're going to do.
So, there's got to be a fraction within the Republican Party, for God's sakes, to get together and say, "Okay, who can we get a Speaker of the House to be at tip of the spear, to be a vanguard for our policies, to be a voice for us, a competent voice for us, a committed voice. Someone who has skills in the arena on television, on digital?" These are prerequisites. You start asking yourself these questions and maybe the list gets smaller, but it can't just be Kevin, it just cannot be Kevin, someone who's got a policy agenda.
We are what? Six months away from November, five and a half months away from the midterm elections. I have no idea what Kevin McCarthy and his leadership operation wants to do in Congress if they win. None, do you have any idea? Could you name their top priority? Can you name Kevin McCarthy's top legislative priority? And he wants to be Speaker of the House, come on. Got to demand better, got to!