House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy derided President Joe Biden on Thursday, condemning him for a slew of proposals and first-day executive orders that, among other things, took steps to derail the Keystone XL pipeline, rejoin the World Health Organization, and offer citizenship to millions of illegal aliens.
“I was disappointed to see within hours of assuming office the new administration was more interested in helping illegal immigrants than helping our own citizens, more interested in virtue signals to the climate activists than supporting the union workers who were building the Keystone pipeline, and more interested in appeasing the WHO than getting to the bottom of how China released this virus to the world in the first place,” McCarthy said during a briefing with reporters.
The California Republican, an eight-term member of the House who represents the state’s south central 23rd Congressional District, was particularly aggravated by Biden’s move to rejoin WHO. President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the organization saying it too willingly accepted China’s information on the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19, sparking a global outbreak of the disease.
“Just this week, a panel established by the WHO itself said the organization failed to act quickly at the start of the pandemic,” McCarthy said. “Instead of demanding leadership change and reform … the Biden administration is rewarding failure — for the wrong priorities, at the wrong time.”
McCarthy further mocked Biden, suggesting his inauguration speech call for “unity” was hypocritical, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for not even having the chamber in session.
“Republicans are here ready to work, ready to make sure that we get businesses back open again, we get kids back in school and we get a vaccine to every person who wants one across America. To me, that is a unity agenda,” McCarthy said.
“To me, that’s a priority that Americans want to see coming out of Washington. We can’t achieve that if you tell people to go home and not work. You can’t achieve that if your focus is more on the Paris Accord and ending the Keystone pipeline.”