House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy Sunday rejected calls for President Joe Biden to declare a climate change emergency, saying instead there is an energy emergency.
"We've got an energy emergency right now," the California Republican said on Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo. "We need to be producing more American energy, not less."
His comments came following those of Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., who was on the program before him and said declaring an emergency would give President Joe Biden more power to restrict the export of crude oil and help the United States "outcompete China."
"This is the problem in Washington, the problem with Democrats," McCarthy said. "The thing Ro Khanna did not tell you is when he said he was opposed to sending oil to China, he voted against the ability to temporarily stop that just last week."
Khanna further, when given the ability to ask CEOs from the nation's energy companies last year about exporting oil, instead "asked them if they would promise to produce less oil," said McCarthy. "If you want your gasoline prices high, that's exactly what he was requesting of them to do, putting them on the spot."
This means Khanna is "picking one part over another" when he "talks about going to this 'Green New Deal," said McCarthy. "That's the problem, and that's what the Biden administration and Democrats are doing."
The congressman also discussed the upcoming midterm elections, including answering Bartiromo why numbers aren't higher for Republicans heading into their races.
"Let's look at reality," he said, adding that polls don't often reflect what is happening.
"Majorities are not given, they are earned," McCarthy said. "Let's look at what happened just in the last month. Republicans just won a seat that was 84% Hispanic, the second most Hispanic seat in the country. Biden just won it a year and a half ago by 13 points and Obama won by 22. The last time a Republican held this seat was more than 100 years ago. Myrna Flores has never run before, but she's a member of the U.S. Congress right now."
He added that when Americans see the Republicans' commitment to the country and to putting it back on track, away from Democrat-created inflation, they'll put into perspective what the Democrats have done "by creating inflation."
"If a person is paid on a salary, they have just lost an entire month of work for free because of the Biden administration," said McCarthy.
The House will be in session for one more week, said McCarthy, but Democrats "have no plan coming before us but to send more money. It's not just Republicans who warned about the American Rescue Plan. Steve Ratner, a Democrat, calls it the original sin where inflation began. Larry Summers warned them before they passed it."
In other matters, McCarthy discussed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's denials that her husband, investor Paul Pelosi, has bought any stock based on information from her, including the shares of Nvidia stock purchased just weeks before the House took up a bill on computer chips.
"This isn't the first time Paul has done this," said McCarthy. "You know the person who controls the whole House to determine what bill comes to the floor? It's the Speaker of the House. And Paul Pelosi and Nancy Pelosi made $5 million the last time this happened…I promise as we move forward we will change the ability for this."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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