Republican Majority Leader Representative Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) gave Speaker Representative John Boehner (R-OH) a B- and vowed to fight to defund Obamacare, the president’s executive action on immigration, Planned Parenthood, and the Iran nuclear deal on Tuesday’s “Hannity” on the Fox News Channel.
McCarthy began by touting using the reconciliation process against Obamacare and expressing his frustration at the Senate for not ending the filibuster against the Iran nuclear deal.
He further pointed to decrease in the deficit during his time as Majority Leader, and pushing for border security.
When asked how he would grade Bohener, McCarthy gave Boehner a B-, and pointed to the GOP’s large majority in the House, deficit reduction, and the number of bills passed in the House. He continued that the Senate hasn’t “moved.”
When the discussion turned to the president’s executive action on immigration, McCarthy argued “there’s no funding there, and there should be as we go forward,” and denied that the Congress funded it because “the courts had put a stay on it, so there was no funding going towards that.”
McCarthy was then asked, “Are you willing to defund Obamacare, and use your constitutional authority? Are you willing to use your — the power of the purse to defund Planned Parenthood? Will use the power of the purse to stop the power grab of this president through the use of executive amnesty, ignoring our laws and our Constitution? If you’re speaker, will you go into your conference and say ‘This is what we should do. We need to unite together.'” He answered, “I will unite them, and yes, we’ll do it.”
McCarthy further discussed a specific strategy on Planned Parenthood, stating that there needs to be a select committee on Planned Parenthood, and “We need America to watch those videos” and that he will need the help of conservative media to do so.
In the second segment, McCarthy was asked about Obamacare funding, Planned Parenthood funding, funding for the president’s executive action on immigration, and the Iran deal, and whether “if Kevin McCarthy is the speaker of the House, will you tell conservative America tonight, that you will fight to the end, that you will encourage every member, to defund on all of those issues, and use that power of the purse?”
He responded, “Yes, the answer is yes. But I’m going to do it with a strategy. And you want to know how the strategy’s even playing out? Watch what we’re passing what is dealing with Iran, just this week.” McCarthy then pointed to a bill by Representative Patrick Meehan (R-PA) that will prevent Iran from receiving the $150 billion dollars the president will send to Iran unless they pay judgments of “almost $44 billion” against Iran due to their terrorist actions that killed Americans.
Later in the interview, when the B- he gave to Boehner came up, McCarthy said, “if you judge him on what he moved out of the House, I think you would change his grade. But I’m not here to argue with that. But the thing I will you, everybody gets elected on their own.”
Earlier, on CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper,” McCarthy stated on Planned Parenthood “Why wouldn’t we challenge him [President Obama]?” He further argued for starting with a select committee to “win the argument, then win the vote.”
He was also asked whether his previous vow of no government shutdowns extended to a promise not to have any defaults on debt. McCarthy responded that people want a change in Washington, and “you don’t want to have a cliff, you want to make that argument ahead of time. Make your case, and put your ideas, and your bill forward.” McCarthy added, when asked what he would do if the president vetoed a bill to avoid a default, that welfare reform was vetoed multiple times, and that “It’s not a problem to send a bill to the White House a couple times.”
McCarthy also said he’s opposed to amnesty, and touted the importance of the rule of law, while expressing support for starting with border security first.
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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