Kevin McCarthy Deflects When Confronted Over Trump’s ‘Mentally Disabled’ Remarks About Kamala Harris
© AP Photo / J. Scott Applewhite
Former GOP House Speaker Kevin McCarthy found himself in a defensive corner on Sunday when asked to address controversial remarks made by former president Donald Trump. During a rally in Wisconsin, Trump falsely claimed that Vice President Kamala Harris is “mentally disabled.” When confronted with this statement by CNN’s Inside Politics host Manu Raju, McCarthy struggled to give a clear answer.
Trump’s comment, made at a rally on Saturday, targeted both President Joe Biden and Harris, saying, “Joe Biden became mentally impaired, Kamala was born that way.” He then added, “only a mentally disabled person” could support the policies of the Biden-Harris administration. Raju pressed McCarthy on whether this was an effective or appropriate line of attack, but McCarthy sidestepped the question.
Initially, McCarthy acknowledged that Trump did indeed make the comment, saying it was “100 percent true” that Trump said what he said, but he quickly shifted focus away from the inflammatory remark. Instead, McCarthy steered the conversation toward Republican talking points on illegal immigration, citing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) data about immigrants convicted of homicide living outside of detention facilities.
When Raju pressed him further, pointing out that Trump was directly questioning Harris’ intelligence, McCarthy remained evasive. “I would question anybody’s intelligence” who supports current policies, McCarthy responded, but he avoided directly addressing Trump’s comment about Harris being “mentally disabled.”
Raju asked repeatedly if McCarthy was comfortable with Trump’s remarks. “You’re okay with saying ‘mentally disabled,’ that’s the bottom line,” Raju said. McCarthy denied being comfortable with the statement, but he again pivoted back to his immigration talking points, refusing to fully condemn Trump’s words.
The exchange didn’t end there. Raju also questioned McCarthy about false claims made by Trump and JD Vance that Haitian migrants in Ohio were eating people’s pets. McCarthy dodged that question as well, instead recycling the same talking points on immigration and border security.
Trump’s remarks have drawn significant backlash, including from the American Association of People with Disabilities. The organization told The Washington Post that Trump’s comments “say far more about him and his inaccurate, hateful biases against disabled people than it does about Vice President Harris, or any person with a disability.”
This is not the first time Trump has made offensive comments about disabled people. He once mocked a disabled New York Times reporter at a rally and, according to his nephew Fred Trump III’s memoir, once said it would be better if people with serious disabilities “just die.”
