Fox News "Hannity" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Kevin McCarthy
Interview
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HANNITY: Now, German Chancellor Angela Merkel is in Washington tonight where she just wrapped up a dinner with President Biden and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, he attended that dinner.
Also earlier today, he met with former President Trump about 2022 and beyond.
Here to explain, give us the behind-the-scenes, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
Well, how did Biden seem to you, very alert?
REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA), MINORITY LEADER: He was alert tonight. He spoke at the dinner. It was a small dinner.
He gave a toss. Chancellor Angela Merkel gave a toast, and the first lady at the end gave a little comment about departing. But it's more talking one big table and people just talking with one another.
HANNITY: Okay. Let's talk about -- did he bring up any important issues like how he's going to handle Russia? Why he gave them a waiver for the pipeline? Did he talk about China now threatening to take over Taiwan and threatening our military bases and Japan's military bases?
Did he talk about why he's pressuring the South Koreans to give $7 billion to the Iranians and allowing the Iranians to enrich uranium and lifting sanctions simultaneously? Any of that come up?
MCCARTHY: These are all things we wish I could have (ph) a topic about. But when you talk about, exactly right, the pipeline from Russia to Germany -- he shuts down a pipeline for America, but now, it's going to empower Putin even stronger against our allies. I mean, this is a real concern that we have. Why can't we create more American jobs, become energy independent like we were?
And these were some actual discussions I had with President Trump -- talking about the border, talking about our success in the last election, talking about our first six months in fund-raising. And we've talked about you a little bit too, Sean, and that was all good.
HANNITY: Okay, you didn't talk -- well, I don't even -- I don't want to know that part, we'll see.
Well, one of the things that had been reported is, is that the former president, President Trump will be out there and the Republicans are putting together America First, Make America Great agenda, and that you will run on a unified message platform that we will get things done -- and if we're given the opportunity to do so.
A lot was done in Donald Trump's first term. I can't really think of any success of Joe Biden off the top of my head, not one.
So, will we get back to energy independence, secure our borders, better, freer, fair deals? Peace through strength, build up our military, less bureaucracy? You know, are we going to go back to the better days?
MCCARTHY: We are. You know, if you really think for one moment, if President Biden had done nothing in office, America would be stronger today.
You know, I sat with President Trump, he was in great spirits. But we talked about the border because he had just been down to the border. Had -- what President Biden has done with the border, opening up, now we're catching people on the terrorist watch list, fentanyl has increased by 300 percent, killing Americans as they (ph) come across, more than a million people have come across this border illegally now in the process.
But we also talked about what's happening -- inflation. Democrats in a short amount of time have created an inflation that is a tax on all Americans.
We also talked about the security and safety of our cities. We watch crime continuing to rise because the Democratic policies were enacted and they defunded the police. And now they want to defund the border.
You know, there's a number of things we discussed, but we also discussed exactly what you're talking about -- when we put the Commitment to America out with President Trump. It was the first time in the last election since 1994 that no Republican incumbent lost for Congress. We beat 15 Democrats. We elected more Republican women in the last Congress and the history of Congress then ever before.
And we're going to build on those successes and even go further. And even in our first six months, we've outraised the Democrats.
But if you want to join with us and you believe in this, go to takethehouse.com. Because that critical race theory, Democrats are pushing that, they're trying to defund our police, they're opening up the borders, they brought inflation back, and we're watching prices like we've never seen before.
And let's talk about the gas price, the highest it's been since the last time Joe Biden was in office.
HANNITY: Yeah, $1.25 more a gallon. We pay more for everything. Add that to the high inflation.
The -- I mean, none of it is a good, open borders. We're now energy dependent again.
Leader McCarthy, we'll watch carefully. This is a very important race in 2022. Thank you.
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