Retiring Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) last address to Congress on Thursday sparked a sarcastic response from CNN’s Jake Tapper.
The ousted House speaker, who earlier this week endorsed the twice-impeached and four-times-indicted Donald Trump for president in 2024, closed his congressional career with a message for fellow Republicans.
“Do not be fearful if you believe your philosophy brings people more freedom,” he said. “Do not be fearful that you could lose your job over it.”
“Do it anyways. I would do it all again,” McCarthy added.
Tapper, reporting on the speech, sarcastically sniped live on CNN in a video shared online by Mediaite, “Ah, yes. ‘Do not be fearful.’ Words of courage from Kevin McCarthy, the Winston Churchill of our time.”
Critics on X, formerly Twitter, ripped McCarthy over the role he played in rehabilitating the image of Trump among Republicans when he visited him at his Mar-a-Lago home in the aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection.
Trump is now the runaway Republican 2024 front-runner, with some polls suggesting he would beat President Joe Biden in key swing states if next year’s election is a replay of 2020.