House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., on Thursday took multiple swipes at House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., in an apparent effort to undermine his leadership of the committee.
“The question continues to be raised that Nadler can’t even handle the gavel, not only with how he dealt with the last committee hearing — it comes into doubt regardless of what the issue — is whether he’s capable of even being a chairman,” McCarthy told reporters on Capitol Hill. “He has a plan of what he wants to do to the president, and he doesn’t even have the ability or the knowledge to make it work,” McCarthy said later during the press conference, suggesting Nadler is simply pushing for President Trump’s impeachment.
The House Judiciary Committee this week voted along party lines to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt of Congress after the Trump administration official refused to comply with a subpoena requesting an unredacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller’s federal Russia investigation report. The White House had earlier asserted executive privilege over the document.
[Opinion: Nadler’s show trial, not Barr, deserves to be held in contempt]
House Judiciary’s move comes after Barr declined to testify before lawmakers on the committee because majority members wanted an extra hour of questioning assigned to staff lawyers. The panel’s vote sends the contempt charge to the House floor, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is yet to schedule a time for the measure to be considered.
While standing by Article I powers of congressional oversight, McCarthy on Thursday quickly deflected criticism of Trump’s handling of the situation and Pelosi and Nadler’s insistence his actions had plunged the country into a “constitutional crisis.”
“If you looked at President Obama’s record on responding to Congress, it wasn’t very good,” he said. “The only crisis we have is the majority of this Congress. It’s almost an obstruction inside this Congress. Look at the number of bills they have passed.”
Despite his concerns, McCarthy expressed doubt that the House would vote on the contempt charge.
“I don’t think anything happens, I think it’s more a messaging bill,” he said. “It would be an embarrassment if the Democrat majority brings this to the floor.”
