NBC "Meet the Press" - Transcript: Interview with Reps. Kevin McCarthy

Interview

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CHUCK TODD:

And joining me now is the House Republican Leader, Congressman Kevin McCarthy of California. Congressman, welcome back to Meet the Press.

REP. KEVIN McCARTHY:

Well, Chuck, thanks for having me back.

CHUCK TODD:

All right. On day one of the shutdown, the president had a deal in front of him that was essentially a continuing resolution for three weeks, no wall. That's the deal he agreed to on day 35. What was accomplished?

REP. KEVIN McCARTHY:

Well, nobody likes to go into a shutdown. But the one thing I would see, especially if you're looking at winners and losers, I don't know why someone would celebrate a status quo. I watched the president, in every one of these meetings, offer a reasonable solution. I watched then-Leader Pelosi spend a new historical time on the floor of the House, eight hours, talking about DACA. We don't have the DACA solution solved, when we could've. We still have a problem at the border. We don't have that solved. And now, we've got three more weeks to go. I watched Speaker Pelosi sit there and would not negotiate with anything. So I give President Trump a lot of credit. He put the American people before politics. He said if you want the go --

CHUCK TODD:

After 35 days.

REP. KEVIN McCARTHY:

No, he did --

CHUCK TODD:

For 35 days, though, what did he get?

REP. KEVIN McCARTHY:

Well, I'm not celebrating getting something. Because what people are celebrating, saying Speaker Pelosi is strong, because she got status quo? That's not what the country wants. The country wants to find common ground. The president made four different offers. It was Speaker Pelosi who said, "I wouldn't talk about anything." So when you think about 35 days, we've got 35 days of Speaker Pelosi not negotiating. And the president finally said, "This is too much. If you say you'll do something else, I'll open it up, so the federal workers will be paid --

CHUCK TODD:

Right.

REP. KEVIN McCARTHY:

-- and let's see where you'll go in three weeks."

CHUCK TODD:

Well, that was her stance. She'll negotiate after you open up the government.

REP. KEVIN McCARTHY:

No. Her stance was not one dollar for a wall. We're not going to do anything, that it's immoral. And I don't believe that's where her members are, as well. Because if you listen to her own chair of Agriculture said, "Give Trump the money." Her chairman of Armed Services says, "Walls work." Even her number two says, "Walls are not immoral." She is out of step with her own base.

CHUCK TODD:

In three weeks --

REP. KEVIN McCARTHY:

Yes.

CHUCK TODD:

-- the president is unlikely -- I mean, do you really believe you're going to get a grand compromise, that somehow, Democrats will trade something temporary for something permanent, a permanent structure for temporary relief for some of these folks? Do you really believe that'll happen in three weeks?

REP. KEVIN McCARTHY:

Well, if Democrats have always, in the past, voted for some barrier, and now, they're not going to, because it's being offered by President Trump, that's politics. That means we'd still have a crisis at our border. If, in three weeks, they said, before, "If you open it up, then we'll negotiate, they won't," they are the ones causing the problem. They have changed the course of what they voted for in the past. Speaker Pelosi had voted for a wall and barrier. Schumer had voted for a wall and barrier. But now, they will not, because it's President Trump. I think that's wrong.

CHUCK TODD:

The Gang of Eight bill, the infamous Gang of Eight bill, that you guys in the House never brought to a vote did have extra fencing in it. I believe it was 350 miles --

REP. KEVIN McCARTHY:

Yes.

CHUCK TODD:

-- of extra fencing, had $46 billion in border security. What's wrong with Gang of Eight being the, being the beginning of the negotiations?

REP. KEVIN McCARTHY:

Last year, I spent more than a month, every single day, in my office, with Durbin, with Steny, with the chief of staff of the White House. And we tried to come together on an immigration bill. It's one of the hardest things ever to do. But when I see a crisis on the border, 500,000 people illegally enter our country, when we are the most-liberal, bringing in a million new people every year, the way we should do it, I think this is an opportunity to not only solve a border crisis, but we've got kids here dealing with DACA. They're both big issues. Solve them right now.

CHUCK TODD:

Look, the only way to make it happen is if both sides are willing to buck their base.

REP. KEVIN. McCARTHY:

Yeah.

CHUCK TODD:

Is the president actually willing to buck his base? He's never given an indication he is. He's threatening a national emergency.

REP. KEVIN McCARTHY:

That is not true. The president is the only one who has been reasonable in these negotiations. And Chuck, I've been in every single meeting, so I watched it. The president is the one who offered. This president is the one who, at the State of the Union, went further on immigration than I've heard from a President Clinton or even President Obama. So no, that is unfair. It was only the Democrats who would interject when the secretary of Homeland tried to talk about the current crisis. They didn't want to hear it. They didn't want to negotiate. They said nothing. It was the president that offered four different plans, yeah, that moved further than I think this party has even looked.

CHUCK TODD:

Let me ask you this. I want to play something from you --

REP. KEVIN McCARTHY:

Please.

CHUCK TODD:

-- in November of 2016.

REP. KEVIN McCARTHY:

I always love when I get this stuff

CHUCK TODD:

I know you love this stuff. Because I think it's going to beg the question of, what the heck took you guys so long? Take a listen.

[BEGIN TAPE]

REP. KEVIN McCARTHY :

And I put together the team, actually, with the speaker and others, our staff, working on legislation now, so when we're sworn in, not waiting til when the president is sworn in, but at the very first week of January, we are able to move the legislation needed to start building the wall.

[END TAPE]

CHUCK TODD:

At the end of the day, why should Democrats bail out your party that had two years to figure out a way forward here? You said you were going to have legislation ready to go in 2017. What happened?

REP. KEVIN McCARTHY:

We did. If you look at the appropriations, we are building the wall right now, a portion of it. We have to go further.

CHUCK TODD:

Then why did he shut down the government?

REP. KEVIN McCARTHY:

He did not shut down the government. Let's be very clear. We were in the House, in the majority. We moved a bill to the Senate. You know, as well as everybody else in America, it takes 60 votes. Schumer is the one who said, "No." So you put it on --

CHUCK TODD:

It is? DACA for the wall is the --

REP. KEVIN McCARTHY:

No, no, listen --

CHUCK TODD:

-- thing the president backed away from.

REP. KEVIN McCARTHY:

No, no, no. We passed this at the end of last year, money for the wall, more money, because we're already building it. We put another $5 billion in there. The Senate had a different version. And Schumer said, "No," so it got shut down. Then what happened? The president stayed in Washington. The speaker then went to Hawaii. The president stayed there to negotiate. We brought meetings down. They said they wouldn't talk about anything. We got into a shutdown that lasted longer than ever before. The president made four different offers that were reasonable.

CHUCK TODD:

Not until after he shut down the government.

REP. KEVIN McCARTHY:

He didn't shut it down.

CHUCK TODD:

He's the one that said he'd be proud to own it. Who else did it? He rejected the Senate bill to keep the government open.

REP. KEVIN McCARTHY:

No, no. The House had a bill. The Senate had a bill. Like every other piece of legislation, it takes 60 votes in the Senate. Republicans don't have 60 in the Senate. So I think it would only be fair, Chuck, to understand that, if it takes 60 votes in the Senate, there's probably blame on both sides.

CHUCK TODD:

All right, let's talk about this. In three weeks --

REP. KEVIN McCARTHY:

Yes.

CHUCK TODD:

-- when I think you guys pass something that keeps the government open, and I'm guessing you guys don't have, you don't want to go through another government shutdown, a bunch of senators want to, basically, make it impossible to shut down the government. Create -- Senator Portman's got a bill. Senator Warner's got a bill. But all of it is, basically, never to cancel a paycheck again for a non-political appointee. Will you support something like that?

REP. KEVIN McCARTHY:

Yeah, but I'll go further. You want to know how you'll never have a shutdown again? Let's not pay the members of Congress and Senate.

CHUCK TODD:

That's the Mark Warner Bill --

REP. KEVIN McCARTHY:

That's the bill --

CHUCK TODD:

-- and the White House, right?

REP. KEVIN McCARTHY:

That's the bill I would put in.

CHUCK TODD:

And all political staff. That's the bill.

REP. KEVIN McCARTHY:

That's the amendment I would offer. Because this only harms others. But think about this. The president offered four different, reasonable tacks. The Speaker Pelosi, then leader, has the record for the longest speech on the floor, more than eight hours, just one years ago next month, about DACA. He took two issues that are a problem, and he wanted to solve it. Today, you're trying to celebrate and say, "Speaker Pelosi is some type of winner in this." No, that means status quo. That goes against everything we know and we want for America. We want to find common ground and solutions.

CHUCK TODD:

Very quickly --

REP. KEVIN McCARTHY:

Yes.

CHUCK TODD:

-- you have not appointed all members of the House Intelligence Committee on the Republican side. Why?

REP. KEVIN McCARTHY:

I will next week.

CHUCK TODD:

Some people think you're trying -- it's helping to delay the transcripts that could get sent to Mueller.

REP. KEVIN McCARTHY:

No, nothing of the sort. The reason why committees weren't already reported, the Democrats were not organized. They waited until after the speaker race, which Republicans would never do, to give us the ratios. I have just now met --

CHUCK TODD:

Intel is always the same ratio, though, in fairness --

REP. KEVIN McCARTHY:

No --

CHUCK TODD:

-- on that front.

REP. KEVIN McCARTHY:

No, we had negotiations with the speaker changing. I just, I just met with every single individual that I'm going to appoint on Friday. So it'll come out next week.

CHUCK TODD:

All right. Kevin McCarthy, Republican from California, good to see you, sir. Thanks for coming on and sharing your views.

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