How Kevin McCarthy’s 'flip-flopping' and 'overpromising' brought him total humiliation in the end: columnist

When Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-California) was first sworn into the U.S. House of Representatives on January 3, 2007, Donald Trump's presidency was a decade away — and McCarthy didn't have to worry about pleasing the future MAGA movement. But MAGA demands eventually became unavoidable for the California Republican, whose years as a congressman are coming to an end now that he has announced his resignation.

In a biting op-ed published on December 7, the New York Times' Michelle Cottle looks back on McCarthy's 17 years in Congress — arguing that his "flip-flopping" and "overpromising" were his downfall in the end.

"It wasn't supposed to be this way," Cottle explains. "Mr. McCarthy came roaring into Washington from California in 2007 with big dreams and enormous promise. Alongside fellow young guns Paul Ryan and Eric Cantor, he was part of a new generation of fresh, feisty conservatives looking to overhaul what they saw as a stale, out-of-touch Republican Party."

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When the MAGA movement, spearheaded by Trump, took over the GOP, McCarthy repeatedly went out of his way to please Trump. But in the end, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) and other MAGA Republicans who voted to oust him as speaker didn't appreciate it.

Cottle argues that "by empowering the most extreme elements of the Republican conference," the former House speaker "made an already fractured, fractious chamber even more dysfunctional."

"Having spent most of 2023 as a punching bag for his conference's right flank," Cottle writes, "Mr. McCarthy has finally reached his pain threshold. At the end of this month, he announced on Wednesday, he will pack up his toys and flee the House, having made history as the first speaker booted from the job…. In his fevered pursuit of the gavel, Mr. McCarthy time and again prostrated himself before the altar of Donald Trump, sacrificing basically all the things that matter: his dignity, his integrity, his values such as they were, his soul — you name it."

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Read Michelle Cottle's full New York Times op-ed at this link (subscription required).