“The Republican Party really made great gains” in 2020, House Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., told “Sunday Morning Futures” in an exclusive interview, saying the developments show Americans “rejected” the “Democrat socialist policy.”
McCarthy was reelected as the U.S. House of Representatives’ Republican leader in the 117th Congress following a surprisingly strong GOP showing during the November elections.
While Democrats won control of the lower chamber again, Republicans gained ground – picking up seats with not a single incumbent candidate losing their race.
McCarthy was a large part of that effort, raising more than $106 million this election cycle and campaigning in 33 cities over the last weeks of the campaign, according to the Associated Press.
Host Maria Bartiromo noted on Sunday that the “House GOP flipped at least 12 seats with major victories for incoming women, veterans and minorities.”
McCarthy told Bartiromo that the new face of the House Republicans looks “tremendous.”
“We’ve had more women than at any time serving in Congress,” he noted. “The Republican Party really made great gains, not only did we flip 12, there are four more races out there and we’re ahead in all four of them so I expect as the week progresses it will end up somewhere around 212, 213 seats, it only takes 218 for a majority.”
“This will be the closest of a majority that at any time since World War II and really, nobody saw this coming,” McCarthy continued. “The American people have now rejected Nancy Pelosi and the Democrat socialist policy.”
He went on to say that “the next two years are going to be about the Republican commitment versus the Democrat’s agenda.”
McCarthy added that he thinks “another reason why the Democrats lost” is because “their agenda” to defund the police “just didn’t play.”
CLYBURN TEARS INTO ‘DEFUND THE POLICE’ MOVEMENT
Some Democrats in Congress have tried to distance themselves from anti-police rhetoric following the party’s underperformance in this month’s elections, but left-wing activists and lawmakers are intent on pushing the party even further to the left.
House Majority Whip James Clyburn of South Carolina, Rep. Conor Lamb of Pennsylvania and Rep. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia are among the Democrats who’ve tried to distance themselves from socialism and the “defund the police” movement following the election. But the party’s activist base has said that won’t fly.
Justice Democrats, a far-left group aligned with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., was one of four left-wing groups that signed a memo earlier this month urging Democrats to embrace Black Lives Matter, which has called for slashing funds to police departments across the country.
McCarthy stressed that Republicans, on the contrary, “had a commitment to America, to make our streets safe, to defeat this virus, to rebuild our infrastructure, to end our dependency on the China infrastructure.”
“That’s the agenda we will move forward and we’ll be looking to get five to six more Democrats to join with us and then we’ll be able to run the floor,” he continued.
He noted that the “difference” between Republicans and Democrats is that the GOP has “a commitment” to America, compared to the left’s “simple agenda that defunds the police” and “discredits the American public.”
McCarthy said he doesn’t think a socialist agenda “sells” going forward.
He noted that 18 Democrats “won reelection with 52% of the vote or less,” adding that he believes Republicans “will gain the majority next time and we could actually run the floor this time through our commitment to America.”
Meantime, Pelosi, D-Calif., had been tapped by Democrats to run for speaker for a seventh and eighth year.
The Democrats met virtually Wednesday to select their top leaders for the 117th Congress. Democrats are expected to maintain a slim majority in the new Congress – the most-narrow in two decades for either party.
The votes were taken by secret ballot, thanks to a secure app Democrats used Wednesday. Pelosi ran unopposed.
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The full Hous elects the speaker when it convenes on Jan, 3. The winning candidate for speaker requires an outright majority of the entire House. In other words, 218 votes out of 435.
Fox News’ Julia Musto, Peter Hasson and Chad Pergram contributed to this report.
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