Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., told Newsmax on Tuesday that because Pennsylvania and Georgia likely will decide this year's presidential election, Democrat Vice President Kamala Harris erred by choosing Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz over Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro as her running mate.
"He's not the one I would have thought to pick if I was a Democrat strategist," McCarthy told "The Record With Greta Van Susteren." "He's probably one of the last I would pick. … When it really comes down to it, Pennsylvania and Georgia [will] determine this entire election. To pass over Shapiro shows me a lot of different things.
"What it told me was Vice President Harris is not ready to make a tough decision. She won't stand up to her own party. She was afraid of her party so she wouldn't pick Shapiro. If she picked Shapiro, she would have gained some respect from me."
McCarthy said Harris shied away from Shapiro because he is Jewish and has voiced support for Israel in its war against Iranian-backed Hamas terrorists.
"She's afraid of the Gaza movement in her party because his stance for Israel is where the majority of Americans are, because he happens to be Jewish," McCarthy said. "She thought it would cause her problems in Michigan, so she took the road out where, 'I'm going to pick somebody [that] nobody knows.'
"[Minnesota Rep.] Ilhan Omar loves him, so [she thinks] 'I won't have a problem with the far socialist wing of the party, and he's not going to overshadow me.'"
McCarthy said presidential candidates typically run to the right or left of their parties during primaries and then turn to the center for general elections. But he said by picking Walz, "she did the complete opposite in this case."
"When you couple this with Minnesota — remember Ronald Reagan won 49 states [in 1984]. There was one state he didn't win: Minnesota," he said. "You're going far left, and you're doubling down on that [with Walz].
"This is taking the furthest left [candidates] of a party and putting [them] in the top two."
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Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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