As the House Republican Caucus machinations over who’ll wield the gavel in the 118th Congress continue, a confident-sounding Kevin McCarthy talked about his immediate priorities to kick off 2023 on Friday’s episode of Fox News’ “Jesse Watters Primetime.” That is if the GOP Leader wins the gavel.

Guest host and former Republican Congressman Sean Duffy asked McCarthy how he sees the race for the speakership playing out on January 3. Again, McCarthy sounded confident:

Great question – the first thing we have to do is elect our Speaker. We can’t do anything until we elect that Speaker,” he said. “And if you watch, the White House is actually pushing back on our investigations, saying we’re not going to give you anything till you get this solved. So, we need to be able to move forward with that.

Then, on the very first day, the first thing we’re going to do is repeal the 87,000 IRS agents. Another reason why the Democrats are mad at me, I think – government should be here to help you, not to go after you, then we’re going to secure our border. You’ve got to secure this border, the millions of people coming across, the fentanyl that’s killing our children.”

No, Kevin, the Democrats aren’t “mad” at you; they want to destroy anyone who gets in the way of the policies of soon-to-be former, TDS-riddled Speaker Nancy Pelosi — and the soon-to-be Democrat minority. Now, as for repealing the 87,000 IRS agents, let’s hope Joe Biden doesn’t suffer an aneurysm when he loses his mind. I mean, from what I understand, the old guy can get pretty cranky at the drop of a hat.

Next up, McCarthy alluded to energy independence under former-president Donald Trump, with a not-so-subtle jab at Biden’s dependence on foreign oil production — which has left the hat-in-hand president begging the Saudis to bail him out of his intentionally-created oil crisis, along looking into the origin of COVID-19, and the FBI spying on Americans for noncriminal reasons.

We need to work on our economy. That means making us energy-independent. We need to hold this government accountable. Where’s the origin of COVID began? Find out what this Biden family had done in the process. Make sure the FBI is not going after Americans but actually going after crime. We’ve got so much work behind us, and we need to start on the very first day.

The “we” to which McCarthy alluded, of course, includes him as Speaker of the House.

As I reported on Friday, the Californian presumably believed at some point he would take control of the gavel, if the Republicans regained control of Congress, which at this point remains a question. As McCarthy continues to scramble to gain the needed 218 votes to win, he’s been engaged in a series of private meetings in which he reportedly pledged to reduce the required number of votes to call a floor vote to oust a sitting Speaker, in his latest effort to win over critics while maintaining support he has already garnered from elsewhere in the party.

The Bottom Line

McCarthy and his allies appear to have the right priorities, but the skeptic in me wonders whether the Republican leader’s words will be followed by actions and demonstrable changes. Yet, the optimist in me wants to believe that House Republicans won’t squander their slim majority and will undo Pelosi’s “accomplishments,” with full knowledge that they must deliver to conservatives over the next two years–if they are to retain the majority in 2024, not to mention regain control of the White House.

While control of the White House in 2024 will rest mainly with the GOP nominee, it will also be critical for the Republicans to knock off the circular firing squad over to Trump, or not to Trump.

That, my fellow conservatives, will be the tallest order of them all.