House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said Tuesday Republicans are confident they will flip control of the House in the midterm elections next year.
“We believe Republicans will take the House in 2022,” Mr. McCarthy told reporters in Orlando, Florida.
The California Republican forecasted a similar outcome before the 2020 election, predicting former President Trump would win reelection and the GOP would regain control of the House.
Joseph R. Biden defeated Mr. Trump, however, and Democrats hung onto a narrow House majority despite a stronger-than-anticipated showing from Republicans.
Mr. McCarthy said Tuesday the agenda Mr. Biden has pushed in the first 100 days of his administration has helped put Republicans in the driver’s seat — particularly on immigration and the U.S.-Mexico border.
“President Biden created a crisis on our border,” he said. “He’s denied that it is even a crisis.”
Mr. McCarthy said Mr. Biden and Vice President Harris should visit the southern border, adding that most members of the House GOP conference have made the trip.
The comments came on the closing day of the GOP’s three-day retreat in Orlando, where House Republicans gathered to hone their message, craft policy plans and unify rank-and-file members ahead of the 2022 election.
Mr. McCarthy’s remarks served as a rebuttal of sorts to Mr. Biden’s scheduled address Wednesday to a joint session of Congress.
“I don’t know what to expect, if I go based upon his first 90-some days in office, I think he would propose a couple trillion more dollars, and a lot more in taxes,” Mr. McCarthy said of the president.
He said Mr. Biden thus far has made various missteps — particularly his decision to revoke the permit for the Keystone XL oil pipeline — and that his worldview is emboldening China, Russia and Iran.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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