Kevin McCarthy: ‘Republicans Have a Plan to Fix It’

CLEVELAND, Ohio — House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) addressed the Republican National Convention on Tuesday night, telling the party: “Republicans have a better way. We have a plan to fix it.”

McCarthy, who built a small business before entering politics, built his address around the theme for the evening, “Make America Work Again.”

He summarized Republicans’ policy proposals, which he said were the answer to those Americans who had been left behind and ignored by Washington, repeating the refrain: “We hear you.”

McCarthy also added a shout-out to his home state: “I’m proud to be a conservative from California!” he said as he greeted the crowd inside the Quicken Loans Arena, and the 172-delegate-strong California contingent seated in the front rows.

He argued — with a touch of Silicon Valley-meets-Tea Party — that America needed to “disrupt the status quo,” and that Hillary Clinton was that status quo.

McCarthy had followed Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI), who is also chair of the convention, and who had riled up the crowd with an appeal to unity and optimism: “Progressives deliver everything except progress,” he reminded them.

Ryan also offered a summary of key differences with the Democrats, which McCarthy echoed in his own address, reminding the audience about the lies they had been told about Obamacare, and about the failures of a government that had promised great achievements but delivered very little.

Following McCarthy, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie laid out a more specific, detailed, and prosecutorial case against Hillary Clinton and her record in government, including her failures in foreign policy, echoing themes from the previous evening.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. His new book, See No Evil: 19 Hard Truths the Left Can’t Handle, will be published by Regnery on July 25 and is available for pre-order through Amazon. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.