US backlash against Republican lawmaker hitting Pelosi joke

The leader of the Republican caucus in the United States House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, has been asked to apologize or resign, after joking that he could hit the president of the body, Democrat Nancy Pelosi, with a mallet.

At a fundraising dinner in Tennessee last night, McCarthy spoke optimistically about the prospects for his party to regain control of the chamber in the midterm elections next year.

In a moment, the assistants presented him with a large mallet, Yes the bench chief said that with this instrument in his possession he would find it hard to resist hitting Pelosi.

“I want you to see Nancy Pelosi hand over this bridge to me; it would be hard not to hit her with it, ”McCarthy said. Between cheers and laughter, a Washington Post reporter and a local Nashville reporter who attended the event detailed, according to the AFP news agency.

McCarthy’s comments were the latest sign of his deteriorating relationship with Pelosi, who called his Republican counterpart last week “imbecile“for opposing the use of masks to combat the coronavirus pandemic, which is reappearing in the country due to the rapid spread of the Delta variant.

The repercussions were immediate and today Representative Ted Lieu from California urged the Republican to apologize or step down, a call also repeated by California lawmaker Eric Swalwell.

“Violence against women is no joke,” she tweeted.For her part, Representative Teresa Leger Fernández of New Mexico, whose outrage was shared by many lawmakers.

“Threatening political violence is no joke; these comments are misogynistic and dangerous, ”he wrote.

“A tongue like this ledor violence and death on the United States Capitol. Kevin McCarthy knows his words matter, ”Michigan Representative Debbie Dingell tweeted.

Dingell seemed to be referring to the fierce language of then-President Donald Trump in a Jan. 6 speech to a crowd that stormed Capitol Hill as Congress certified Joe Biden’s election victory.

Pelosi was one the main targets of the demonstrators who razed the Capitol, in an action that left five people dead.