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| Photo Credit: AP. |
MONONGAHELA, Pa. (AP) — House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy on Friday confronted President Joe Biden and the Democratic majority in Congress with a conservative midterm election agenda filled with Trump-like promises, working not only to win over voters but to hold together the uneasy coalition of his own party that has struggled to govern.
McCarthy,
who is poised to seize the speaker’s gavel if Republicans take control of the
House in the fall, never once mentioned the former president. Instead, the GOP
leader traveled to battleground Pennsylvania hoping to replicate the strategy
that former Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia used to spark voter enthusiasm and
gain a majority in 1994.
“What the
‘Commitment’ is, it’s a plan for a new direction,” McCarthy said at a
manufacturing facility in a historic building along the Monongahela River.
The House
GOP’s “Commitment to America” gives a nod to the earlier era but updates it in
the age of Donald Trump, with economic, border security and social policies to
rouse the former president’s deep well of supporters in sometimes-overlooked
regions like this rusty landscape and rolling farmland outside Pittsburgh.
Slim enough
to fit on a “pocket card,” which McCarthy pulled from his suitcoat, the agenda
uses broad strokes — “A Future That’s Built on Freedom” — supplemented by more
detailed proposals on energy, security and an end to liberal social policies,
particularly in schooling.
President
Joe Biden hit back quickly in a speech to the National Education Association.
He dismissed
McCarthy’s agenda as “a thin series of policy goals with little or no detail.”
But he provided his own details in urging support for Democrats in the midterm
elections.
“If
Republicans win control of the Congress abortion will be banned,” Biden said.
He also criticized other GOP lawmakers for proposals to require reauthorization
votes for Social Security and Medicare and opposition to gun control laws and
efforts to lower prescription drug costs.
“In 46 days,
Americans are going to face a choice,” he said. “We have a real alternative
here.”
In
Pennsylvania, McCarthy said that if Republicans win the House, the first bill
next year will be to repeal funding approved by Democrats to bolster the
Internal Revenue Service with more employees.
On Friday,
he stood with a wide cross-section of lawmakers — from far-right Rep. Marjorie
Taylor Greene, R-Ga., to less extreme GOP members of Congress — offering a
portrait of unity despite the wide range of views that make up the House
minority — and the Republican Party nationally.
The GOP in
the Trump-era has shifted from its focus on small government, low taxes and
individual freedoms to a more populist, nationalist and, at times, far-right
party, essentially still led by the former president, who remains popular
despite the deepening state and federal investigations against him.
Propelled by
Trump’s “Make America Great Again” voters, the Republicans need to pick up just
a few seats to win back control of the narrowly split House and replace Speaker
Nancy Pelosi. But even so, McCarthy’s ability to lead the House is far from
guaranteed.
While
Republicans and Trump did pass tax cuts into law, the GOP’s last big campaign
promise, repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, also known as
“Obamacare,” collapsed in failure. Republican speakers, including Gingrich,
John Boehner and Paul Ryan, have been forced from office or have chosen early
retirement, often ground down by party infighting.
“House
Republicans are really good at running people out of town,” said Matt Schlapp,
chair of the Conservative Political Action Coalition.
McCarthy,
first elected to office in 2006, is among the remaining survivors of those
House Republican battles, a leader who, somewhat like, Trump has shown more
ability to communicate than to legislate.
A key
architect of the Republican tea party takeover in 2010, the California
Republican personally recruited the newcomers to Congress — many who had never
served in public office and are now long gone. McCarthy was an early Trump
endorser and has remained close to the former president, relying on Trump’s high-profile
endorsements to propel GOP candidates for Congress. He abandoned an earlier bid
to become speaker when support from House colleagues drifted.
He spent
more than a year pulling together the House GOP’s often warring factions — from
the far-right MAGA to what’s left of the more centrist ranks — to produce a
mostly agreed-upon agenda.
In traveling
to swing state Pennsylvania, where Biden holds emotional ties from his early
childhood, McCarthy sought to counter the Democratic president’s fiery Labor
Day weekend speech, in which he warned of rising GOP extremism after the Jan 6,
2021, attack on the Capitol.
McCarthy he
and fellow lawmakers chose Washington County not Washington, D.C. “Because it’s
about you, it’s not about us.”
Along with
as many as five House seats Republicans believe they can pick up in
Pennsylvania in November, the state has one of the most watched Senate races,
between Democrat John Fetterman and Trump-backed Dr. Mehmet Oz. At the top of
the ticket is the governor’s matchup between the GOP’s Doug Mastriano, who was
seen outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, and Democrat Josh Shapiro.
“If you are a hard-line populist and you
really want anger, Kevin’s a little frustrating because he’s not going to be
angry enough for you,” Gingrich said. “On the other hand, if what you want is
to have your values implemented and passed in the legislation, he is a really
good leader and organizer.”
Gingrich has
been working with McCarthy and his team to craft the style and substance of the
proposal.
Conservative
Republicans complain privately that McCarthy isn’t leaning hard enough into
their priorities, as he tries to appeal to a broader swath of voters and hold
the party together.
Many are
eager to launch investigations into the Biden administration and the
president’s family, with some calling for impeachment. Legislatively, some
House Republicans want to fulfill the party’s commitment to banning abortion,
supporting Sen. Lindsey Graham’s bill prohibiting the procedure after 15 weeks
of pregnancy.
Former
McCarthy rival Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio who joined the event Friday, vowed to
launch investigations including into the COVID-19 crisis if Republicans win the
House.
Republican
Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, a member of the conservative Freedom Caucus, has
advocated for withholding federal funds as leverage for policy priorities, a
tactic that engineered past government shutdowns.
“Putting out
like, you know, principles about, ‘Well, we’ll secure the border.’ I mean, OK,
but what are we gonna do about it?” Roy said.
It’s notable
that McCarthy alone has proposed a plan if Republicans win control of the House
chamber. In the Senate, Republican leader Mitch McConnell has declined to put
forward an agenda, preferring to simply run against Biden and Democrats in the
midterm election.
“Kevin’s
done a very good job of being in position to become the speaker. And then the
question is, what do you do with that? Schlapp said. “This helps as a roadmap.”
Associated
Press writers Kevin Freking and Farnoush Amiri in Washington and Jill Colvin in
New York contributed to this report.
Follow the
AP’s coverage of the 2022 midterm elections at
https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections.