Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), who is likely going to be the next Speaker of the House should the Republicans do well in the midterms, has long been considered a classic conservative. But recently he has built a reputation for himself as a Trump apologist whose ambition has made him overlook the threats facing the country, according to a new report in The Los Angeles Times.
A Republican consultant who has known McCarthy for decades says he's is not "recognizable anymore."
"He's not the same person," said Mike Madrid.
"He's dealing with a countercultural movement within the party. He has to pivot to leading a fiery mob. ... The old Kevin McCarthy would have protected the party from the mob. He has been overrun," Madrid continued.
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Marisa Wood, a schoolteacher and Democrat running against McCarthy in the 20th Congressional District, says he has chosen "the cult of personality in his cowardice at catering to Trump."
"We have high poverty and crime here. Kevin voted against the infrastructure bill that could have helped a lot of people. Eighty-eight percent of my students are on free or reduced lunch. He doesn't hear those voices when he's in Mar-a-Lago," Wood said.
Los Angeles Times reporters Jeffrey Fleishman and Nolan McCaskill write that McCarthy exists in an era where "political antipathy" has "crystallized in culture wars over allegiances and identities."
"It was an accelerating crisis from within — the myth of America's common ground cracking beneath the rage of division. Those forces are testing McCarthy. But like the California town he was raised in, where water is fought over and field dust blows across the valley, he is accustomed to perseverance."
Read the full piece over at The Los Angeles Times.
