Kevin McCarthy Confirms He Lived With Frank Luntz After Tucker Carlson Story

Following a report fromFox News host Tucker Carlson insinuating that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy may have violated ethics rules by renting a room to pollster Frank Luntz, McCarthy took to the airwaves, questioning why it was a controversy.

“I didn’t know how this was controversial,” McCarthy said in an interview. “Frank has been a friend of mine for more than 30 years. I met him with Newt Gingrich back when they were working on the Contract with America,”

“And so, yes, I’ve rented a room from Frank for a couple of months but don’t worry, I’m back to — going back to where I normally am, on my couch in my office,” McCarthy said. “But, yes, we pay fair market rate.”

“Why do Republican officials listen more carefully to Frank Luntz than they do their own voters?” Carlson questioned in his original report, then calling Luntz an “outsized influence over the Republican Party’s policy positions.”

“Well, Frank’s not a lobbyist. Frank’s a friend I knew 15 years before I ever got in and I just rented a room for a few months there. So I don’t see that there’s any problem along that line,” McCarthy said, countering Carlson. “But I’d like to see everybody stay together. Let’s work to make sure we put people back to work, back to health, back to school. Stop this woke movement that’s going on.”

“He seems upset. I think he and Tucker must dislike each other, and I don’t think that’s right,” McCarthy said of Luntz. “They need to get together and solve whatever difficulties because we’ve got to make sure that we put this country back on the right track. We were so successful under President [Donald] Trump, and what President [Joe] Biden is doing today — the last thing we want to do is be fighting among ourselves.”