Recently he said “I took President Biden at his word; I took him at his word when he said he was going to get Covid under control. Unfortunately, more Americans have died this year than last year under Covid.”
Does he think that Biden has a magic wand? He can’t just make covid go away. What he can do is facilitate the creation of tool and measures to help bring it to and end. Which it seems like he has done. WE have to make use of those tools. We all have to do our part.
He’s neither stupid nor crazy. He is, however, cynical as hell. He has a good understanding of the level of intelligence of his audience, and of their willingness to believe what they are told by those they have decided to follow.
Exactly. Kevin McCarthy isn’t really that stupid. But he thinks his followers are really that stupid.
Do you think he is mistaken? I don’t.
What do you mean by “bring it to [an] end”?
He doesn’t think his followers are that stupid. He knows his followers are that stupid. The Republican playbook is to sabotage Democratic presidents and blame them for the results of their sabotage. And because their supporters all walk on their knuckles, the strategy works.
That’s how Republicans roll. The utter ineptness of the previous administration’s response and outright denial of the magnitude of the problem and the refusal to encourage safety measures- no, the willing denigration of safety measures that led to where we are doesn’t matter a bit. Liberate Michigan! Liberate them from masks, that’s right. 
Just say it’s Bidens fault. As mentioned, McCarthy has an idea how stupid his voters are.
My FIL would like to ask McCarthy this question. If Biden is doing it wrong, tell us how to do it right?
I wonder if Kevin mentioned that many of those who’ve died in the past year are Trumpers who’ve refused to get vaccinated.
“Put us back in power and we’ll tell you.” Translation: “We have no idea.”
This has been a GOP staple at least as far back as Nixon’s 1968 “plan” to end the Vietnam war.
Everything McCarthy has been saying or doing since becoming the Minority Leader has the sole purpose of making it so a majority of the caucus members feel they “owe him” their own election or reelection and the eventual recovering of the majority, and that includes the total pandering to the militantly-ignorant faction as being “what it takes”. The man has no pride or dignity if what’s at stake is “make me the next Speaker”.
Ideally, Covid is eradicated. Realistically, Covid is reduced to a nusiance. Deaths from Covid aren’t so high. Hospitals aren’t overwhelmed.
I don’t support a goal of eradicating Covid because that’s likely unrealistic. It’s difficult to completely eradicate a disease and we’re barely capable of doing it for anything. I think if people have that mindset they will likely be discouraged and eventually apathetic about the issue which is very dangerous.
I think we should be focused on ending the pandemic. There are countless diseases out there but just one causing a pandemic. If the pandemic was ended and Covid is just another nasty disease you hope to not get but just treat it if you do, then I’d call that a major victory. And I think that’s very achievable.
Yes. I agree. I think it’s dangerous to still be talking about ending covid, or even just talking about “bringing this to an end” in a vague way, because it does give people like McCarthy ammunition. No one should be saying Biden has done, or will do what’s needed to end this. The claim needs to be a lot more specific.
Isn’t the bolded statement also factually incorrect?
No. 341,199 deaths as of 12/31/20 and 802,969 today.
McCarthy knows that blaming one’s opponent for what is making people unhappy is always a sound strategy. Is it a hypocritical one? Of course. The only core Republican principles are hypocrisy and bigotry. The only real question, sadly, is how the OP can be surprised about this.
Wow, that’s a bet I’d have lost for sure. No doubt the GOP is preparing all sorts of ads about how COVID has gotten worse under Biden.
And conversely, taking credit for what makes people happy – like GOP house members bragging about infrastructure bill benefits that they voted against.
You mean the COVID so many deny exists?
Do I hear the crawfish moo of hypocrisy?
We both know it’s entirely possible for Republicans to both deny the existence or magnitude of COVID and at the very same time blame Biden for its ongoing destruction without for a moment considering the cognitive dissonance or inherent contradictions of holding both positions simultaneously.