Opinion

No One Is Shedding a Tear for Kevin McCarthy

THE NEW ABNORMAL

On this week’s episode of The New Abnormal, why people are so keen to forget that Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) didn’t even hold onto the House Speaker role for a whole calendar year.

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A photo illustration of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty

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It was short, and hardly sweet. Ousted former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) announced this week that he is resigning from Congress, effective at the end of this year.

But what of his legacy? The New Abnormal hosts Danielle Moodie and Andy Levy reflect on this week’s episode.

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“I think that he should be embarrassed because what he’s going to be remembered as is a limp gavel, Fisher-Price Speaker of the House who did not have the ability to get his caucus together,” Moodie says.

Adds Levy: “I don’t think anyone’s shedding a tear for Kevin,” while claiming that despite McCarthy’s unpopularity, “I think he’ll be fine. And I think he’ll get himself a nice cushy lobbyist job or think tank job and, you know, make way too much money.”

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Plus! Elie Mystal, justice correspondent at The Nation and author of Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guy’s Guide to the Constitution, joins the show with a chilling prediction: “If Trump gets in power again, he’s never leaving.”

Then, Ryan Grim, author of the new book, The Squad: AOC and The Hope of a Political Revolution, joins the podcast to discuss it, including elaborating on how the seeds for “the Squad”–comprised of a small group of Democrats who essentially are not white males–were planted in Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign.

Listen to this full episode of The New Abnormal on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon and Stitcher.

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