Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty
As Hurricane Ian ravaged south Florida on Thursday, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) stood outside the U.S. Capitol at a press conference and made a vow to the victims.
“We’ll do anything in our power to help them,” McCarthy said, responding to a question from a reporter about the impacts of the hurricane and Gov. Ron DeSantis’ ability to help his state recover.
As the GOP leader said this, he was flanked by dozens of members of his House Republican conference. Their presence added a new dimension to McCarthy’s statement: many of them have been on the record opposing hurricane relief packages—or lent their support to proposals designed to drastically reduce the amount of money the federal government spends on disaster relief.