Locals speak out about Mccarthy’s border wall legislation

Cole Karr, a representative for Congressman Kevin Mccarthy, walked into the Porterville Centennial Plaza Conference Room Friday afternoon to speak with nearly 20 locals about the political happenings of the Mccarthy office.

Before opening the floor for comments and concerns, Karr reported recent occurrences regarding the Congressman.

“There has not been much in the way of legislative action, at least on the House side,” said Karr.

Although Karr reported the House hasn’t been in session since last month, he did state that the President has signed a bill regarding opioids. This bill, titled HR6, addresses the opioid crisis and treatment options for opioid users, including Medicaid and Medicare treatment provisions and public outreach projects to help educate about the opioid epidemic.

Up until recently, Karr has stated that the Congressman has been against building a border wall. On Friday, Karr announced that Congressman Mccarthy has decided to change his position and move forward in support of building a border wall in an attempt to secure the border and stop illegal immigration.

Karr presented a statement from Mccarthy that revealed the Congressman has introduced legislation that will fully fund the wall in an amount of $25 billion.

This piece of information did not sit well with some of those in attendance.

“This is garbage, and the Congressman should be ashamed of himself,” said Katie Black, a local Porterville resident. “There are other ways to address the immigration problem. It’s maddening.”

Brock Neely, a local member of the Porterville Democratic Club, shared his concerns about a tweet that was posted from Mccarthy’s Twitter account regarding money being siphoned into the Democratic party to help win votes on Nov. 6.

“A lot of the money from [different companies] have gone to people like Kevin Mccarthy,” said Neely. “So who’s being bought?”

“I think we can all agree that there is too much money in politics in general,” said Barry Caplan. “What concerns me is after about 12 people received pipe bombs, [Mccarthy] decided to send this tweet that specifically addressed the Jewish people, and then

a few days later when a synagogue was shot up and 11 people were killed, he apparently thought twice about this tweet from only a few days before and deleted it.”

Karr denied that the tweet had any anti-semitic meanings and stated that Mccarthy would not send out anything indicating those types of messages.

Porterville resident Karen Smith spoke out about information sources and how each individual in the group is likely working with different information.

“Right now each side is being stirred up by social media,” said Smith. “It’s smoke and mirrors out here. We’re not getting the right information. There is a mix out here. We aren’t just solid Democrat or solid Republicans, we’re a mix. Each issue needs to be taken on its own merit and we need a lot more education.”

Karr facilitates a Mccarthy mobile office meeting that is open to the public on the first Friday of every month in the Porterville Centennial Plaza Conference Room at 10 a.m.