‘Each State Has Their Right’: Kevin McCarthy Throws Down With CNN’s Dana Bash On Gerrymandering

Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) argued in favor of states’ rights in a heated debate Thursday with CNN’s Dana Bash over the issue of gerrymandering.

McCarthy criticized Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) push to hold a special election on redistricting in order to add more Democratic congressional seats, just as Texas is trying to do for Republican seats.

“Going back to Texas,” Bash began. “They are redrawing the lines.”

“Yes, because that’s what their constitution allows them to do,” McCarthy argued.

Bash continued, “But it’s because mid-decade, it’s because that’s what President Trump is asking them to do.”

As McCarthy protested, Bash played a clip of Trump saying he wanted “just a very simple redrawing” of Texas. “We pick up five seats.”

Bash claimed, “If that was a Democratic president asking, starting this whole thing mid-decade, asking a Democratic-controlled legislature to redraw the maps and pick up five seats, you would understandably be hitting the roof.”

“Okay. I would understandably be going — California Republicans vote 39%. They have 17% of the vote. They’ll now be down to 6%. Democrats have 83%. You’re very upset about Texas. You know what Republicans will have in Texas after they have 56% of the vote? About 72%. Do you know what the Democrats have in Illinois? They have more than 83% of the lines…You haven’t done one show on that.”

“That’s not true!” Bash protested. “We do it all the time! I just showed the map. We do a lot.”

“Each state has their right,” McCarthy continued. “And you know what? The Republicans in Illinois didn’t run away from the state. You know what? In California, when they did that, we didn’t run away. We competed. Nancy Pelosi was the speaker, and I won the majority by five seats. And you know what? I won those five seats in California, which people believed would be very difficult to do.

“So, I believe the voters should have the say. That’s all this is about. And each state has their own constitution. California has a constitution, and we now have a governor that wants to change the constitution for his own political belief.”

On Thursday, California’s Supreme Court dismissed a suit by Republicans meant to prevent Newsom’s plan from moving forward.

Watch the clip above via CNN.