McCarthy made the comment during an exclusive interview with “Sunday Morning Futures” days before House Republicans will vote to potentially strip Rep. Liz Cheney, Wyo., of her No. 3 GOP leadership position, which McCarthy called “one of the most critical jobs.”
Cheney, who is the most high profile of the 10 House Republicans to vote in January to impeach then-President Trump for inciting the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by right-wing extremists, also faces a major headache back home in Wyoming, as Republicans are plotting to oust her as the state’s lone representative in Congress when she’s up for re-election next year.
McCarthy stressed the importance of being united given Democrats are “destroying” the country. He pointed to “the largest missed jobs report” in more than two decades, the “destruction of our energy” and the migrant surge at the southern border as reasons why he believes Democrats are hurting America.
The unemployment rate unexpectedly rose to 6.1% — while it’s still well below the April 2020 peak of 14.7%, it’s about twice the pre-crisis level, the Labor Department revealed in its monthly payroll report released Friday.
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Economists surveyed by Refinitiv expected the report to show that unemployment fell to 5.8% and the economy added 978,000 jobs. The report revealed employers added a measly 266,000 new jobs in April.
President Biden has scrapped a number of former President Trump’s immigration policies, which included construction of the border wall and having asylum seekers remain in Mexico instead of staying in the U.S. while they wait for their cases to be heard. The moves have led to a record surge in migrants, including unaccompanied minors, which had recently strained capacity at immigration facilities.
Also, in a series of orders aimed at combating climate change, President Biden temporarily suspended the issuance of oil and gas permits on federal lands and waters and cancelled the Keystone XL oil pipeline project.
President Biden revoked the permit for the 1,700-mile pipeline on his first day in office, ending a project that was expected to employ more than 11,000 Americans this year.
“Everyone in leadership serves at the pleasure of the conference and there is a lot at stake,” McCarthy said, answering whether he believes Republicans will vote this week to remove Cheney form her leadership position. “Democrats are destroying this nation.”
He explained that “we’ve watched the greatest expansion of government and the socialist liberal agenda” and “we watched them [Democrats] destroy our borders where hundreds of thousands are coming across not being tested for COVID. We’re catching people on the terrorist watch list.”
McCarthy also said President Biden was creating “inflation that we’ve never seen before” and that under his administration the U.S. has been experiencing “a takeover of government” and tax increases.
He stressed that the damage done will be irreversible and “that’s why we need a conference that’s united [and] that’s why we need a conference chair that’s delivering the message day in and day out and uniting the nation to make sure that we are on the right footing going forward.”
A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to Fox News’ request for comment.
“To defeat Nancy Pelosi and the socialist agenda we need to be united and that starts with leadership,” McCarthy added. “That’s why we will have a vote next week.”
He went on to say that currently “we are in one of our biggest battles ever for this nation and the direction whether this next century will be ours.”
McCarthy said he supports Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., to replace Cheney as the House GOP conference chair.
Fox Business’ Megan Henney and Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
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