McCarthy questions Harris over Walz pick, lack of interviews

Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) slammed Vice President Harris’s pick for vice president, calling the Harris-Walz ticket the “most liberal ticket in the history of American politics” and accusing the media of “not holding her accountable” due to her lack of interviews. 

“I was shocked [Harris] picked Tim Walz. No one really knows him. But, you know who really wanted him? Ilhan Omar and Bernie Sanders,” McCarthy told radio host John Catsimatidis in a Sunday interview on “The Cats Roundtable” on WABC 770 AM. “This is by far the most liberal ticket in the history of American politics.”

McCarthy also went after Harris for not answering questions from the media, saying that she had to be “held accountable” for her record on inflation and the border. 

“The media never asked her a question,” the former Speaker said. “We’re a little less than 90 days away from the presidential election, and she hasn’t been interviewed. She hasn’t been asked a tough question. 

“We’ve got Middle East, whether Iran it will attack Israel. We’ve got Ukraine battles. We’ve got America pulling out of our bases and other parts of the world. We’ve got a border wide open, and Kamala is not being held accountable or telling us what she’s even going to do,” he added. 

Republicans have attacked Harris this week for not answering questions from the press. Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) walked up to Harris’s press corps outside of Air Force Two in Wisconsin earlier this week and asked them if they were “lonely.” 

“I figured that I would come by and get a good look at the plane because hopefully it’s going to be my plane in a few months,” Vance said while standing in front of Air Force Two. “I also thought you guys may get lonely, because the VP doesn’t answer questions from reporters.”

Harris answered some questions from the press on Thursday and said she has instructed her team to set up a sit-down interview by the end of the month. 

McCarthy also tied the volatility on Wall Street this week to the prospect of a Harris victory. 

“A lot of people on Wall Street were saying, ’It was looking like Kamala could win.’ So, the market drops hard. Her policies … are inflation, regulation, the open borders … Get the personalities out of it and let’s just make [this race] about policy.”

There is no evidence that the market volatility is tied to Harris, but McCarthy was repeating a line from former President Trump who dubbed the volatility this week as the “Kamala crash.” 

On Monday, global stock indices tanked after a slow jobs report and amid fears of a U.S. recession. However, most of the losses have since disappeared and the major stock indices ended this week higher than their close last Friday. 

McCarthy also attacked both Harris and Walz for their “liberal records.” 

“When she was in the Senate, she was ranked the most liberal senator in the US. That’s beyond Bernie Sanders, who’s not registered as a Democrat, he’s registered as a socialist,” he said. 

“Then she picked Tim Waltz,” he said. “We’ve watched what happened in Minnesota. He let the cities burn, and Kamala comes in and pays the bailout for the few people they arrest. I mean, we do not want to put San Francisco and the Minnesota in charge.”