Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) may have led Congress, but he probably shouldn’t ever teach history.
That’s the verdict after the former House speaker posted a tweet on Sunday that is getting mocked for its historical inaccuracy.
McCarthy’s post on X (née Twitter) included a video in which he claim, inaccurately, that “in every single war that America has fought, we have never asked for land afterward — except for enough to bury the Americans who gave the ultimate sacrifice for freedom.”
Think for one moment. In every single war that America has fought, we have never asked for land afterward—except for enough to bury the Americans who gave the ultimate sacrifice for freedom. pic.twitter.com/XbReeVvWPX
— Kevin McCarthy (@SpeakerMcCarthy) November 27, 2023
McCarthy’s post quickly attracted criticism as well as a community note that pointed out that McCarthy’s own district in California would currently be part of Mexico if it hadn’t been ceded to the United States at the end of the Mexican-American War of 1848.
Other people lambasted McCarthy’s ignorance of history.
New cry of freedom: “Forget the Alamo!” https://t.co/K7LK9NyW9C
— Tim O'Brien (@TimOBrien) November 27, 2023
This guy represents California in Congress — one of 9 current states whose territory the US won in part or whole during the Mexican War of 1848. Then there is the Spanish American War that saw the US take Guam, Puerto Rico and the Philippines. Otherwise solid history. https://t.co/2dGwsIp8gT
— Joshua Zeitz (@JoshuaMZeitz) November 27, 2023
These guys spent so much time erasing American history that they forgot to read it. https://t.co/lhfDgIAtbb
— Marc Lamont Hill (@marclamonthill) November 27, 2023
What's really amazing about this transparent lie is that he was so confident about it, he shared this clip himself. That's how far down the rabbit hole too many of us are when it comes to a kind of phony patriotism built upon myth and distortion. https://t.co/sZah1BOcYV
— @ijbailey (@ijbailey) November 27, 2023
Think of all the wisdom from this man we’d be deprived of if his home state of California had never spontaneously risen from the sea and attached itself to the United States https://t.co/1GL8Rbohna
— George Conway (@gtconway3d) November 27, 2023
If you don’t even know how your home state became a state you should have ZERO say in how teachers teach history. Let alone be a member of congress. https://t.co/aZ99rVlwYH
— David Hogg 🟧 (@davidhogg111) November 27, 2023
This is complete ignorance. Nearly half of our land mass was seized after the Mexican War and we took the Philippines and Puerto Rico after the Spanish American war. https://t.co/7JwJOTZDOE
— Mike Madrid (@madrid_mike) November 27, 2023
We’re gonna need to cultivate some patriotic messaging that doesn’t rely on transparent falsehoods. https://t.co/cpZp2bZRnt
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) November 27, 2023
HuffPost reached out to McCarthy’s office for comment, but no one immediately responded.
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