Former GOP Home Speaker Kevin McCarthy became a defensive and evasive mess Sunday when confronted with false remarks by his social gathering’s presidential nominee, former president Donald Trump, that his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, is “mentally disabled.”
CNN Inside Politics host Manu Raju performed McCarthy clips from a Trump rally in Wisconsin Saturday, the place he stated, “Joe Biden turned mentally impaired, Kamala was born that method, she was born that method,” earlier than happening to say “solely a mentally disabled particular person” may have pursued the insurance policies of the Biden-Harris administration.
Raju requested McCarthy if he thought it was an efficient line of assault. McCarthy at first had no reply, acknowledging it’s “one hundred pc true” that Trump stated what he stated earlier than refusing to debate what Trump stated.
As a substitute, McCarthy insisted they concentrate on “what was stated earlier than and what was stated after” and rolled into Republican speaking factors about unlawful immigration, flagging Immigration and Customs Enforcement knowledge reported to Congress that stated over 13,000 immigrants convicted of murder within the U.S. or overseas live outdoors of the company’s detention amenities.
Raju prompted him once more, “however he’s questioning her intelligence.” McCarthy then stated he “would query anyone’s intelligence” who applied present insurance policies, earlier than reiterating his GOP speaking factors, although by no means going as far as to deal with Trump’s false declare that his opponent is “mentally disabled.”
‘SNL’ Rips Trump for Calling Kamala Harris ‘Mentally Disabled’
Requested twice extra about about Trump’s “mentally disabled” assault, McCarthy requested “do you suppose anyone could be mentally steady” for pursuing sure border insurance policies and that he would “query your psychological capability” in the event you supported insurance policies he attacked, in every case reverting again to his speaking factors.
“You’re okay with saying ‘mentally disabled, that’s the underside line,” stated Raju. McCarthy stated “No”—as to not implicate himself in agreeing with Trump’s sordid and baseless assault—earlier than once more restating his speaking factors across the ICE knowledge.
When Raju requested him about Trump and operating mate JD Vance’s false claims that Haitian migrants had been consuming individuals’s pets in Ohio, McCarthy additionally had no reply and refused to interact, as an alternative repeating his identical speaking factors as soon as extra.
The American Affiliation of Folks with Disabilities has slammed Trump’s remarks, telling The Washington Put up they “say much more about him and his inaccurate, hateful biases in opposition to disabled individuals than it does about Vice President Harris, or any particular person with a incapacity.”
Trump has a sordid historical past of creating hateful remarks towards disabled individuals. He stated it will be higher for individuals with severe disabilities to “simply die,” according to the tell-all memoir of his nephew Fred Trump III, and as soon as brazenly mocked a disabled New York Occasions reporter at a rally.
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