Former House Speaker and longtime Bakersfield Congressman Kevin McCarthy said Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., could indeed unite California voters, but not in the way the prominent liberal hopes to.
Schiff is the leading Democrat in California's unique Jungle Primary system where the top two vote-getters at Tuesday's polls will move on to the general election regardless of party.
Recent polling shows Schiff locked tight with retired Major League Baseball great Steve Garvey, the leading Republican candidate. Democratic Reps. Katie Porter and Barbara Lee lag behind Garvey and Schiff.
McCarthy told Fox News Tuesday that Garvey has a shot at becoming the first Republican elected to the Senate in California since 1988 – when Pete Wilson swept most of the states' counties outside the Bay Area in a feat that seems distant for contemporary Republicans.
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"It's difficult in a state like California. But remember, Steve Garvey played for the L.A. Dodgers and played for the San Diego Padres as well," McCarthy said. "For anybody who's an old Dodger fan [who can recall] Kirk Gibson hitting that last-minute home run, you could turn it all around."
Similar to that 1988 World Series game, McCarthy said Garvey has an uphill battle against likely general election opponent Schiff, but said the lawmaker is the one Democrat running who can unite Republicans, independents and moderate Democrats against him.
McCarthy said Schiff has repeatedly "lied to the American public," appearing to refer to the onetime impeachment manager's drumbeat of Russia-centric allegations against former President Trump.
"Remember, as chairman of [the House] Intel [Committee] he failed time and again with what happened in Afghanistan; missed so many things going forward because all he wanted to do was impeachment."
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The former speaker called Schiff a "purely political" man who "never represents the people," suggesting Schiff's campaign style evinces the idea he fears a "real race" against someone like Garvey, whom he said united Californians while playing in the MLB.
For Schiff's part, he told reporters that California needs "someone in the Senate that can work together with House members in the California delegation and actually deliver for the state."
Meanwhile, Garvey said he never took to the ballfield for any one political party but for all Californians, remarking he plans to act the same if elected to the Senate.
On "The Story," McCarthy also rebuked Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom's tenure, remarking, "can you believe [he] is a governor?"
He said the high-profile Democrat has failed California and Californians, and is chiefly to blame for its continued population exodus and homelessness epidemic.
McCarthy added that Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott's stiff border policies combined with Newsom's lax enforcement has led to "a number of illegal Chinese [migrants] coming into California" as well as Yemeni nationals who are listed on the terror watchlist.
"Why would they pick California over the others? Because Gavin Newsom now gives those who come here illegally health care – Now he's proposing to provide to them also a benefit for home ownership," he said.
"[W]e have more than $70 billion in a deficit. And what he has continued to destroy with trying to put his eyes on trying to get to the White House – This is a real challenge for us. It's his leadership that has failed a ‘Golden State’ that people dreamed of ever having the opportunity to move to. And now the U-Hauls are going the other direction under his leadership."
While Trump is projected to do very well in Tuesday's state primary – which holds a 169 delegate cache – he is not expected to win a general election victory in the deep blue state that has not selected a Republican since its then-former Gov. Ronald Reagan in 1980.
However, McCarthy expressed an outside hope Trump could make a play for his state, citing a nationwide "shift" against Biden and that California U.S. House seats have gradually been flipping red in recent years.
"So yes, California, you can win and we're proving it. And we'll probably win more [House seats] this cycle as well," he said.
