2020 presumptive Democrat nominee Joe Biden releases a joint policy plan with Sen. Bernie Sanders and says some funding should be redirected from police; House Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy reacts.
Transcript
So let’s bring in Kevin McCarthy, House Minority Leader who was one day to be speaker. If those are the stats, and would have believed this poll, what can President Trump and the other Republicans learn from this? Well, we can learn the first thing, this is not a unity group, this is a surrendering to the Socialist. If Joe Biden has been in Washington for more than forty years and hasn’t been able to do any of that, from Criminal Justice Reform and others, why do we think we’re going to have something different. President Trump did to Criminal Justice Reform. He did open up opportunity zones. He has taken executive order when it comes to police reform. So this present is taking action,
Kevin McCarthy: Joe Biden has a long history of doing nothing, but now he shows that he’ll even surrender to the Socialist wing of the party. Because remember, Bernie Sanders is not a Democrat, he was registered as a socialist, ran as a socialist, and that’s what the new wing of the party is craving. Look at the new Congressional members. Omar, she wants to dismantle America instead of duplicating America around the world. Think of her personal life, born in a foreign land, in a refugee camp. America opens their arms to her family and herself. In a first-generation she becomes a US Congresswoman and she’s unhappy about that. She’s unhappy about this country, when this country actually, the freedom in the ideas that we are more than a country, should be duplicated, and it inspires people in Hong Kong, Shipyard workers in Poland, Berlin Wall collapses where to Germany’s become one. That is the power of the America. That is not something to dismantle, it’s something to duplicate.
Hosts: Now you even have Joe Biden saying some of the funding should absolutely redirected from police, and then even further than that, you have that the leader of the Black Lives Matter movement in Philadelphia saying this,
Philly BLM Leader: One of the things that were demanding is the defunding over 5 years to complete abolition. So we don’t want to see any police in our community over the course of those five years. And five years gives time for the community to begin to build what is needed instead of police and at the same time build restorative justice practices, build, build out our on mental health response teams, and things like that, and build medics build, medic responses, and responses that really actually deal with the issues that are in place. Then we will have less crime anyway.
Hosts: Congressman what is your reaction
Kevin McCarthy: Well, I want her to just give that answer to the to the parents of the young children who were shot and killed through the weekend. The idea that less police is going to bring us safety. No, we’ve watched the difference of that happening. That is why it is wrong. And that is why Joe Biden is buying in and surrendering to the Socialist. That is not what we need. We need greater training of the police department, more accountability, the exact same that Tim Scott put into his bill. But the Democrats would not even allow to come up and be debated. That’s the difference. That’s why we have, a, one of the most important decisions were going to make in this November. It’s not just the direction of the next four years, is whether this country surrenders or this country builds on a more perfect union.
Host: So speaking of debate later, I’m sure you saw that Tom Friedman, on the pages of the New York Times, has suggested the Joe Biden not leave his basement to debate Donald Trump unless he agrees to two things, one, to release his tax returns for 2016, 17 and 18, which I think the Supreme Court’s going to decide whether or not Congress gets it later on today. And the other thing is, he should not agree to debate unless there is a live fact-check during the presidential debate about 10 minutes before the end somebody’s going to say, okay, Donald Trump you said this wrong and Joe Biden you said that wrong. Do you think something like that is a good idea and could it possibly be fair?
Kevin McCarthy: It is only Democrats that are so fearful of their nominee that they literally write do not debate, do not come out of the basement, do not talk, because you can’t hold a rally because no one’s going to show up. You have no ideas, and your and what you stood for for the last 40 years, you have to change. That, that shows the strength. What I truly believe is what President Trump is talking about, about rebuilding, renewing, and restoring America. We watch them more than 7.3 million jobs created in the last couple months. We watch to be able to combat a virus from a foreign land that we didn’t invite and we’re going to defeat it together. Those are the ideas of the vision of what we want for the next four years instead of hiding and actually pledging not to come out or not to talk. That’s fearful of even having the job, or fearful of knowing who this nominee is and what they stand for.
Host: So we’re watching the numbers of cases surging in Texas, Arizona, Florida and they mainly those three states as well as California. Now the president still wants people to go back to school. I think its a great idea to find a way to get kids back to school. You believe more money to provide the safety and security would do it. In what respect do you think?
Kevin McCarthy: Look, I want schools to open safely. For all you parents who are watching right now, you’re more than a parent. You’ve now become the teacher, the coach, the tutor. I do not want to leave a generation behind. I know Democrats are afraid to come to work, to even come to Congress, they have their shadow voting. What I want to do is actually pass a bill that provides and focuses on childcare and the schools to open safely. We want to prioritize them with funding and safe to be able to do it. We want to protect them from frivolous lawsuit. We want to give parents flexibility to use their savings, account actually tax-free, to be able to pay for childcare to be able to open that back up. And I want to focus on opening new child care, because you know what, most childcares are owned by women, minorities and others, there becoming the homes and others, being an opportunity to put America back on the stage that they can work. Renew, rebuild and restore this country, and its fundamental that we cannot leave these children uneducated and leave them behind. Democrats may be afraid to come to work, but I believe Congress is essential, and this is the number one thing we should prioritize ourselves on, making sure our children are safe and a plan to open back up.
Host: So who gets to decide when we open back up, open our schools and leaders in Washington have come up with these recommendations but Governor Cuomo here in New York has said, no one gets to tell me I’m the governor. Does he decide or is it local school boards or mayors?
Kevin McCarthy: Well, instead of fighting with one another, why don’t we sit down and get the very best information, get the latest information when it comes to covid-19. Lets plan on our ability for the safety, so the federal government can provide resources, focusing on education, focusing on childcare, working with these Governors to how can we do this safely. There may be pockets that you can’t, but there are a lot of pockets across this country that can.
Host: Sure and Leader McCarthy, we heard the president, a couple of days ago, just talking about how it appeared there were some who didn’t want to open the schools, and he felt like it would damage him. The idea was for these Democrats to damage him politically because, if you cannot reopen the schools, people can’t go back to work, and the economy does not take off, you don’t wind up with that super v-shaped recovery as has been suggested. Yesterday, I believe the president, in a tweet, suggested that unless certain Governors open up the state for school, he’s thinking about withholding funding to those states. Is that a good idea?
Kevin McCarthy: Well, I think our first priority is the safety of the children and also the education of the children, and we can handle those two things. So those governors that don’t want to open, what is their plan to open? What are they doing to prepare to open? What are they doing to prepare the schools or have greater child care, so people can get the economy working again, but make sure these children do not have a generation that they’re left behind because they are not educated. That should be our priority, but many times I find with these Democratic governors, it almost seems to be political, what what they are under making decisions upon. Let’s decide this on safety, on science and the education of our own children.
Host: Thanks so much, Congressman McCarthy, appreciate it.
