House Speaker Kevin McCarthy may be the only top Western official who balked at boarding the train to Kyiv to stand with Ukraine’s warrior president.
But the California Republican’s decision to turn down Volodymyr Zelensky’s invitation, made in an exclusive interview with CNN, is in keeping with the central premise of his speakership – appeasing the GOP radicals who keep him in power.
But as with his handling of a looming debt ceiling crisis and his efforts to help Tucker Carlson whitewash the Capitol insurrection, McCarthy’s unwillingness to cross lawmakers who want to cut Ukraine’s US lifeline may simply be storing up future national crises that could threaten his hold on power.
His precarious position is fast becoming a dominant feature of a critical period of divided government that will define McCarthy’s political career and go a long way toward shaping the 2024 White House race and the legacy of President Joe Biden.
The volatile dynamics of the House GOP and the way McCarthy’s tiny majority gives outsize influence to the most committed “Make America Great Again” loyalists is also complicating his efforts to train undivided attention on Biden’s new budget to be released Thursday.
Moderate Republicans who helped the GOP win the majority last November are just as important to the party’s hopes of retaining control of the chamber next year as pro-Trump extremists. But their priorities risk being constantly compromised by the speaker’s repeated plays to Trump’s base and the ex-president’s most devoted followers in the House.
McCarthy’s balancing act is so far working for him politically. His decision to give January 6 conspiracist Carlson access to US Capitol security tapes sparked a torrent of criticism from the media and some Republican senators, but that counts as a political win with the MAGA crowd. A…
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