Republican House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said Wednesday that the migrant caravan “could be” politically motivated to sway the election and echoed President Donald Trump’s unfounded, conspiratorial claims on the issue.
McCarthy was asked on North Dakota’s WZFG radio station if the caravan was “politically motivated” and intended to impact the election.
“I’m not sure, but it could be,” McCarthy replied. “”Cause one thing, you can’t put a caravan like this together without resources and others. And there’s questions about the timing, but why is it being encouraged and what is happening here? It also goes to core of what we need to have. We have to have a secure border. And our immigration laws need to be fixed.”
McCarthy did not offer any evidence to back up his suggestion. The caravan of an estimated 7,000 people started in Honduras and is slowly moving through Mexico toward the United States. The President has suggested, without evidence, that Democrats are behind the caravan and claimed that “unknown Middle Easterners” were among the group. Trump has made the caravan a key part of his closing pitch to voters in the final days of the midterm elections.
McCarthy added in the interview that he was concerned about gang members in the caravan.
“How many of them are gang members, because we find that so many time again, MS-13,” he said.
