Rep. McCarthy praises Trump's leadership in face of coronavirus
Trump announces new economic aid measures to combat coronavirus impact; House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy weighs in.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., praised President Trump's leadership Wednesday, moments after the president announced the suspension of all travel from Europe to the U.S. for 30 days in an effort to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
"What we watched tonight is the exact type of leader that we need in the White House," McCarthy said on "Hannity."
"What we watched tonight is the exact type of leader that we need in the White House."
"His tone, his leadership, his action, that action that he took early on that people would criticize him for, walling off China ... had Italy done that, they would be in a different position today," he added.
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McCarthy said he had been in touch with members of Trump's coronavirus task force, who "could almost directly correlate any case inside America that is a case directly from Europe."
"That's why he's taking that action," he explained.
Trump also announced that he would be asking Congress to consider an "immediate payroll tax relief," which would eliminate the 6.2 percent tax on an employee's salary up to $137,000 if they receive a paycheck, as well as the amount matched by employers to fund Social Security, an idea that he has previously floated and was met with skepticism by Republican lawmakers.
"He's also looking at the economy and I hope the American public trusts him because we have the strongest economy in the world based upon the policies for the last three years that he led on," McCarthy said.
As the financial markets continued to fluctuate, stoking fears of economic downturn, Trump also announced that he will be asking the Small Business Administration -- a sector of the federal government -- to provide low-interest loans to small businesses negatively impacted by the virus.
"He looked to small business ... this is a man that has built jobs before, he understands what it takes with the economy and that's why we have the strongest economy in the world and we'll continue," McCarthy said.
The House Republican leader also slammed Democrats for focussing their efforts on Trump's impeachment while the president had been "briefing Congress and bringing everyone together" to contain the outbreak.
"Regardless of all the politics the Democrats have been doing, this president has been leading, first, to keep us safe, to prepare us for the future," McCarthy said.
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"What he's doing now is not only to protect us, make this as small as it can be and contain it as well as we can, but get a vaccine if it comes back, and make sure our economy grows," he added.
"We will get through this."
Fox News' Vandana Rambaran contributed to this report.
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