Just hours after the Washington Post reported on recordings of Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Wilderness) taking aim at the Freedom Caucus and blaming them for his party’s historic defeat in the 2018 midterm elections, conservatives across the country are speaking out and demanding McCarthy continue Republicans’ toxic quest to undermine protections with people with pre-existing conditions.
As McCarthy tries to simultaneously deflect blame and undermine the influence of the Freedom Caucus, thought leaders in his own party’s base have made it clear that if McCarthy wants a civil war, he’ll get one.
On top of conservative activists and writers, McCarthy’s own GOP colleague Mark Meadows is upset. He said McCarthy’s comments were “very troublesome” and that he “hoped the us-versus-them mentality of the past was something that indeed was in the past.”
Here are some snippets of the GOP Civil War McCarthy may have just ignited… Stay tuned and don’t miss the recordings.
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Kevin McCarthy feeds GOP donors horse manure about 2018 losses — blaming conservatives
Conservative Review | Chris Pandolfo
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McCarthy is feeding Republican donors a load of horse manure. Essentially, he’s telling the people he’s asking for money that Republicans lost the 2018 midterms because conservative Republicans tried to make the GOP keep its promises. The Freedom Caucus position on Obamacare was always that Republicans should do what they said — namely, after eight years of promising to fully repeal Obamacare, the GOP should have fully repealed Obamacare! But the “repeal” plan offered by McCarthy and the moderate Republicans in Congress left intact the regulations responsible for making health insurance unaffordable. Calling the 2017 American Health Care Act an Obamacare “repeal” is dishonest. Even the CBO confirmed that the GOP plan would have failed to lower insurance costs.
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McCarthy won’t take responsibility for his failure. Instead, as always, the Republican Party leadership blames conservatives for being too crazy, too right-wing, too radical. They say conservatives should be more pragmatic, that we should lower our expectations. But who set the expectations? Who promised to fully repeal Obamacare “root and branch”? Who campaigned on full repeal in every election since 2010? Who told conservatives 85 percent of Obamacare could be repealed without a filibuster-proof Senate majority? GOP leadership made those promises!
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Kevin McCarthy Blames Freedom Caucus for GOP Midterm Losses
Liberty Headlines | Kaylee McGhee
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Freedom Caucus Chairman Rep. Mark Meadows, R-NC, said McCarthy’s remarks were “very troublesome.”
“I hoped the us-versus-them mentality of the past was something that indeed was in the past,” Meadows said.
FreedomWorks President Adam Brandon slammed McCarthy for choosing to blame his colleagues rather than taking responsibility for the establishment GOP’s failures.
“Once again, Republican leadership would rather shift blame to their more principled colleagues in the House Freedom Caucus rather than own their mistakes,” Brandon said in a statement. “Minority Leader McCarthy thinks that because the House Freedom Caucus took a principled stand to give states the flexibility to waive two of Obamacare’s costly mandates, they deserve the blame for the GOP’s midterm thumping.”
“Newsflash: Republicans lost the House because of inept leadership by establishment folks like former Speaker Ryan and Leader McCarthy,” Brandon continued. “Republicans campaigned on a full repeal of Obamacare, and the House Freedom Caucus were some of the only members to have the backbone to make good on their promise.”
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