The Insider reports:
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy joked about casual violence against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi during a glitzy fundraising dinner in Tennessee on Saturday night, according to several reporters who were at the event. During a speech to around 1,400 GOP donors, McCarthy reportedly spoke optimistically about the Republicans’ chances for retaking the majority in the House following the 2022 midterm elections.
McCarthy went on to say that, should the GOP manage to flip the House in 2022 and if he were to become the speaker, he would find it difficult to resist hitting Pelosi with the speaker’s gavel, The Washington Post’s Michael Scherer said on Twitter. “It will be hard not to hit her with it but I will bang it down,” McCarthy joked. During the fundraiser, McCarthy was also presented with a comically large gavel by the Tennessee congressional delegation. It was labeled with “Fire Pelosi.”
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The TN congressional delegation just presented @GOPLeader with a gavel that says “Fire Pelosi.” pic.twitter.com/0xkH662dei
— Yue Stella Yu (@bystellayu_tnsn) August 1, 2021
“It’ll be hard not to hit her with it” — @GOPLeader’s “joke” with oversized gavel about Pelosi is incredibly inappropriate. Joking about hitting women is not comedy. It’s sickening. https://t.co/KDZ10TPzMt
— Carla Marinucci (@cmarinucci) August 1, 2021
NEW: tonight Kevin McCarthy said, if elected Speaker, “It will be hard not to hit” Pelosi with the gavel.
“Joking” about assaulting the Speaker of the House — who his rabid base literally just stormed the Capitol to try to murder.
— Kaivan Shroff (@KaivanShroff) August 1, 2021
Wow — House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy really joked about casual violence against Pelosi should GOP take majority in 2022 and he’s handed the Speaker’s gavel: “It will be hard not to hit her with it.”
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) August 1, 2021
This is the first time that I heard Kevin McCarthy’s “joke” about hitting Speaker Nancy Pelosi. I don’t think that I’ve been so angry at a person as I am now.pic.twitter.com/4bJ1NafEp3
— David Weissman (@davidmweissman) August 1, 2021
Kevin McCarthy should be censured for threatening violence against Speaker Pelosi. Unacceptable.
— MeidasTouch.com (@MeidasTouch) August 1, 2021
I guess we know why 172 Republicans, including @GOPLeader,
voted against reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act #VAWA https://t.co/pThCBHTrfJ— Kurt Bardella (@kurtbardella) August 1, 2021
NEW: tonight Kevin McCarthy said, if elected Speaker, “It will be hard not to hit” Pelosi with the gavel.
“Joking” about assaulting the Speaker of the House — who his rabid base literally just stormed the Capitol to try to murder.
— Kaivan Shroff (@KaivanShroff) August 1, 2021