'Unworthy': Conservative makes the case against Kevin McCarthy's bid for House Speaker
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) -- (Photo by Saul Loeb for AFP)

During an appearance on Fox News this Sunday, GOP leader Kevin McCarthy attempted to put "lipstick on a pig," according to the Washington Examiner's Quin Hillyer.

Hillyer points out that McCarthy tried to make the "farcical assertion" that the midterms were a big success for Republicans. But Hillyer contends that with the lackluster "red wave" giving them a narrow majority, "they will need to prove they actually know how to stop the Biden agenda."

"Meanwhile, that very narrowness is a sign of abject failure, not success. A significant part of the failure should be laid at McCarthy’s door," Hillyer writes.

McCarthy is ignoring the evidence that it was largely the behavior of House Republicans, with him at the forefront, that failed to bring the red wave.

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"It was House Republicans under McCarthy who cynically embraced the 'Big Lie' that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, so much so that two-thirds of them voted not to accept the results even after the unprecedented mob attack on the U.S. Capitol," writes Hillyer. "Then, even after McCarthy himself said publicly that the riot was then-President Trump’s fault, he didn’t have the courage of his convictions. Instead, he traveled to Mar-a-Lago to kiss Trump’s ring yet again. With the chance effectively to exile Trump for good, McCarthy let Trump back in the game."

Read the full op-ed over at the Washington Examiner.