Will Kevin Mccarthy’s cozying to Trump make him House speaker?
WASHINGTON – When Donald Trump won the GOP’S 2016 presidential nomination, most Republicans kept him at arm’s length. California Republican Rep. Kevin Mccarthy did what had worked for him for years, first in Sacramento and then in Washington: A charm offensive.
The House minority leader’s trademark affability – he has a mental Rolodex of politicians’ favorite snacks, hometowns and kids’ names – and his abrupt pivot to become Trump’s most loyal ally in the House earned him the new president’s nickname, “My Kevin.”
Now Mccarthy sees a chance to ride that relationship with Trump into the House majority and a job he’s coveted for years: speaker.
But California’s most powerful Republican is charting a starkly different path to the 2022 midterm election than some other senior Republicans, such as Senate Minority Leader
Mitch Mcconnell, R-KY., who want to make a clean break with the unpredictable Trump and reclaim their party from those who back far-right conspiracy theories, such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-GA.
Instead of cutting anyone out, Mccarthy is trying to keep everyone in. He’s maintaining ties with Trump and took no punitive actions against Greene, while simultaneously defending GOP leaders such as Rep.
Liz Cheney, R-wyo., who voted to impeach Trump.
But success may depend on whether that likability and ability to read his members can prevent what Mccarthy has termed the GOP’S “big tent” from turning into a circus.
“What we see Mccarthy doing is trying to hold together a coalition that maybe can’t be held together,” said Rob
Stutzman, who was a senior adviser to moderate GOP Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger when Mccarthy first rose to prominence in California politics as the first freshman ever elected minority leader in the Assembly. “The question is where do you draw the line? ... Will history reflect better on those who decided not to stay in the game?”
Mccarthy stumbled a bit in recent weeks as he tried to keep his party united after the Jan. 6 insurrection by Trump supporters at the U.S. Capitol. At first Mccarthy offered a rare criticism of Trump for failing to stem the violence, but then Mccarthy quickly backed down. Such contortions are familiar to those who have crossed into Mccarthy’s orbit over his two decades in politics, though the stakes today are higher.
“Kevin knows how dangerous this is,” said Mike Madrid, a longtime GOP strategist in California and a leader of the small faction working to expel Trumpism from the party. “He is fomenting the barbarians at the gate until they are literally breaking down the House doors. Yet he still can’t muster the strength to lead the Republican Party in a different direction.”
The willingness to do whatever it takes to nudge Democrats out of control has turned Mccarthy into a politician ideologically unrecognizable from his early days as a rising GOP star. As chair of the national Young Republicans and later a staffer for former
Rep. Bill Thomas, Mccarthy did battle with the party’s right wing, aligning with moderates eager to keep the focus on economics and not culture wars.
When Thomas retired in 2006 and Mccarthy successfully ran for his mentor’s seat, the two politicians were so in sync that it seemed as much a coronation as an election. Now Thomas talks about Mccarthy as someone who has lost his way, pointing to his quick retreat from the initial statement that Trump bore blame for the riot.