With a little over a year before the 2022 midterms, Republican lawmakers are hoping to secure a congressional majority to hinder President Joe Biden's legislative agenda for the last two years of his first term.
If that happens, Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California is hoping to take over Democrat Nancy Pelosi's position as Speaker of the House.
The pair's mutual disdain is well-documented. Most recently, Speaker Pelosi rejected two of McCarthy's Republican appointments to the House Select Committee investigating the Capitol Riots of January 6. Enraged by the move, Minority Leader McCarthy pulled all five of his appointments to the committee before decrying it as partisan.
Now, McCarthy's recent comments in response to a gift bestowed on him by the Tennessee Republican Party at its recent Statesmen's Dinner are making headlines for all the wrong reasons.
The gift was an oversized gavel, signaling the GOP's hope that McCarthy will become Speaker if the Republicans secure a majority in the House of Representatives.
The Minority Leader joked about hitting Pelosi with the instrument.
Listen below.
Here\u2019s audio of @GOPLeader\u2019s comment on @SpeakerPelosi: https://twitter.com/Vivian_E_Jones/status/1421627881256538114\u00a0\u2026pic.twitter.com/yLC4lzGEVV— Vivian Jones (@Vivian Jones) 1627783194
McCarthy said:
"I want you to watch Nancy Pelosi hand me that gavel. It'll be hard not to hit her with it."
The Minority Leader's attempt at a joke comes just months after a mob of pro-Trump extremists stormed the United States Capitol, beating police officers, calling for the execution of any lawmaker they perceived as disloyal to Trump, and erecting a gallows outside.
McCarthy's wisecrack enraged social media users.
UNFIT.https://twitter.com/michaelscherer/status/1421628453032505344\u00a0\u2026— Steve Schmidt (@Steve Schmidt) 1627786483
After the political violence of January 6th where @SpeakerPelosi was targeted, this behavior is intolerable. Kevin McCarthy must apologize immediatelyhttps://twitter.com/michaelscherer/status/1421628453032505344\u00a0\u2026— David Cicilline (@David Cicilline) 1627785074
Wow. Every time I think they can\u2019t fall further.https://twitter.com/michaelscherer/status/1421628453032505344\u00a0\u2026— Helen Kennedy (@Helen Kennedy) 1627793103
Why are you advocating violence towards women @GOPLeader??https://twitter.com/michaelscherer/status/1421628453032505344\u00a0\u2026— Lauren Windsor (@Lauren Windsor) 1627830410
Not shocking to see @GOPLeader invoke violence against @SpeakerPelosi while he continues to deny the danger she and so many others, on both sides of the aisle, were in on January 6th. He owes the Speaker an apology.https://twitter.com/michaelscherer/status/1421628453032505344\u00a0\u2026— Jan Schakowsky (@Jan Schakowsky) 1627856254
They were even more disgusted to hear the comment be met with applause.
Scary: that a politician feels free to talk about hitting the first female Speaker with the gavel\nScarier: crowd rewards him for ithttps://twitter.com/Vivian_E_Jones/status/1421651875879849986\u00a0\u2026— Danielle Kurtzleben (@Danielle Kurtzleben) 1627854950
DESPICABLE: Listen to 1400 Republicans in Tennessee cheer Kevin McCarthy "joking" about hitting Nancy Pelosi:https://twitter.com/Vivian_E_Jones/status/1421651875879849986\u00a0\u2026— (((DeanObeidallah))) (@(((DeanObeidallah)))) 1627821999
Really jarring to hear the cheers for a man saying it will be hard to resist hitting a woman.https://twitter.com/vivian_e_jones/status/1421651875879849986\u00a0\u2026— Kristin Wilson (@Kristin Wilson) 1627829025
McCarthy has yet to apologize.
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