House of Representatives Majority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy was home in Bakersfield on Friday and said President Donald Trump should ignore the negative news media.
Appearing on “The Richard Beene Show,” McCarthy said that President Trump’s recent Tweets are out of frustration over relentless negative coverage of his presidency, including Trump’s most recent dust-up with MSNBC hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough.
“The best thing you could ever do to somebody who is doing something negative, you watch “Morning Joe”, and you know they’re negative every day, but ignore them,” McCarthy said. “If you ignore them it will drive them crazy. This is exactly what “Morning Joe” would want, because what is going to happen? They’re going to get attention and what happens in today’s society when you get attention? You get more viewers.”
The intensity of the controversies surrounding Trump’s Tweets, the firing of FBI Director James Comey and the ongoing Russia investigation has distracted the country from the legislative work that Congress and the President are doing, McCarthy said.
“You had everything going on in the Capitol this week, but the No. 1 story is going to be about this one thing,” McCarthy said.
When host Richard Beene asked if Trump was a misogynist McCarthy responded with a chuckle and a “no.”
McCarthy said Trump is focused on his own family, and that’s who he wants to spend time with.
“One thing about him is he’s a New Yorker,” McCarthy said. “If you poke him, he’s going to poke back. That’s what he’s been successful at and he’s not going to let somebody bully him around.”
McCarthy, however, said Trump need to ignore those who hit him just for attention.
Later in the interview, McCarthy said that Trump has accomplished more on his legislative agenda than any president since President George H.W. Bush., but there’s still work to be done.
McCarthy said he’s confident the Senate will pass Health Care legislation, which is currently stalled but will be revisited after the Fourth of July holiday, but it will be a narrow vote.
“I think it’s going to happen,” McCarthy said. “I think it’s going to happen by the end of July.”
