Kevin McCarthy defends Rep. Lauren Boebert, downplays House infighting

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., attempted to downplay the tumultuous week in the Republican conference on Friday.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., attempted to downplay the tumultuous week in the Republican conference on Friday, acknowledging only that some of his hard-right members distract from the GOP midterm message in their feuds with Democrats and each other but not condemning the anti-Muslim rhetoric from his member that set off the most recent controversies.

"It's things we would not want to deal with," he said of the controversies over the last few weeks surrounding comments and social media posts from Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Paul Gosar of Arizona.

"It's [distracting from] things the American people want to focus on: stopping inflation, gas prices and others," he said. "Anything that deviates from that causes problems."

The infighting this week began when Boebert's remarks that likened Muslim Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., to a terrorist first appeared on social media. Boebert tweeted an apology to "anyone in the Muslim community I offended" but refused Omar's request to make a direct public apology to her.