McCarthy: Congressional Proxy Voting ‘Endangering the Constitution to Ensure Pelosi Has More Power

As the country grapples with the coronavirus pandemic, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has proceeded with a change to House rules that will allow for so-called proxy voting by members, a move opposed by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).

Such a move would allow for votes to take place without some members of Congress being physically present. However, according to McCarthy, the effort is unconstitutional and being instituted by Pelosi to ensure she maintains a stranglehold on power.

“This is endangering the Constitution to ensure Pelosi has more power,” McCarthy said on Wednesday’s broadcast of Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends.” “Look, our Constitution, our country expects us to convene. For 231 years, that’s what Congress has done — from the yellow fever of 17 — in the 1700s, to the Civil War, to the burning of a building during the — in the 1900s. Then you had Spanish flu. You had the 9/11 — we still convened.”

“But all this does is empower Pelosi more,” he continued. “Sixty-three Democrats will not show up for work today but still be paid. You cannot read the Constitution without clearly seeing that our founders believed we should meet together, from Article 1, section four, five, or six. There is no way to read the Constitution any other way. The only reason the Democrats are doing this, it empowers Pelosi to even be stronger. Watch what she was able to do just a couple of weeks ago — passed $3 trillion with never going through a committee, no one seeing the bill. She wrote it herself and brought it to the floor. The largest bill ever in the history of the United States.”