House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) on Thursday said that the Republican plan to repeal and replace Obamacare is “giving people actual freedom.”
“Are you confident that you’re not making your members take a vote that will make them lose their seats and maybe even you lose the majority leader status?” CNN’s Dana Bash asked.
“We are giving people actual freedom,” McCarthy said.
He said more people “took the option and paid” a penalty than enrolled in Obamacare.
“The Democrats continue to take more freedom away,” McCarthy said. “This bill provides more freedom to the individual, more choice and more opportunity.”
Bash then changed the subject to a report that Republican leadership held a “pep rally” before their planned vote on the repeal bill.
According to the Hill, leaders played the theme song of “Rocky” at a private meeting, while McCarthy quoted Gen. George Patton.
“I have to ask,” she said. “Did you really, inside the private meeting with Republicans today, speak in front of a giant picture of General Patton?”
“No, I spoke in front of the podium,” McCarthy said. “They have a screen and I put a Patton quote up.”
“And you had some quotes,” Bash said. “What was the quote?”
“I don’t remember exactly,” McCarthy said.
“The gist of it,” Bash pressed.
“If you have challenges in life, you have to face your challenges to ever know what the exuberance of victory is,” McCarthy paraphrased from Patton’s quote: “Accept the challenges, so that you may feel the exhilaration of victory.”
