McCarthy, Pelosi boost candidates on same-day visit to Las Vegas

Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy hosted a roundtable Tuesday at the Fraternal Order of Police’s Henderson lodge with congressional hopefuls Sam Peters and Mark Robertson and local veterans about issues important to them.

McCarthy came into town to stump for Republicans Peters, Robertson and April Becker, who are looking to oust the Democratic incumbents in November.

Across town, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi held a roundtable with Nevada officials ahead of a fundraiser to boost those same Democratic candidates.

During the Republican roundtable, McCarthy and the veterans criticized the Biden administration’s pullout from Afghanistan last year that resulted in 13 American service members’ deaths, the military’s focus on “wokeness” and concerns about whether the U.S. could win the next war. McCarthy also used the roundtable to talk about securing borders, funding the police and making sure China does not control the supply chain.

Concerns about access to mental health and the high suicide rate among veterans also came up. McCarthy said he often sees veterans who transition back from war and the loneliness and other struggles they face.

“We should be there for them at all times,” McCarthy said. “One of our biggest challenges is mental health and not having a stigma that we can reach out, and they can reach out and talk to individuals that they want to talk to that are providing it for them.

In Nevada, there are about 254,851 veterans, making up 10.35 percent of the state’s population, according to the Nevada Department of Veterans Services’ State Fiscal Year 2021 Annual Report.

The rate of suicide among veterans increased about 36 percent between 2001 and 2019, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and in 2019, 17 out of 130 suicides each day in the U.S. were veterans.

Candidates speak

Peters, who served in the Air Force and is looking to oust Rep. Steven Horsford in Congressional District 4, wants to focus on helping veterans adapt to civilian society in hopes of curbing high suicide rates.

“When people come back from war zones etc., and (the) separation from the military, we spend a great amount of time training people to go from civilians to war fighters, sometimes years to get them to their qualifications to do that,” Peters said. “And then we spend a couple of days out-processing them to return them to a civilian society, to where they don’t do things that they did in wartime. It’s just inappropriate. We need to focus on that.”

Republican lawmakers, however, took a lot of heat in July when they blocked a bill that expanded health care coverage for veterans exposed to toxic “burn pits,” areas in military bases where waste is disposed. The bill passed anyway after many Republicans switched their votes, and President Joe Biden signed it into law Aug. 10.

“It was another disgusting spending bill,” Peters said. “Very little of it went to the actual problem that was at hand.”

If elected, Peters wants to introduce legislation that would take care of veterans without unnecessary spending.

Fighting inflation

“Veterans aren’t immune from the economic problems that we’re seeing right now,” said Robertson, who hopes to defeat Rep. Dina Titus in Congressional District 1 and served in the U.S. Army. “Veterans are also paying higher prices for gas and groceries just like Nevada families. And they’re hoping that we can go back and help solve those economic issues.”

The veterans at the roundtable also called for accountability for the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and a report of all that occurred during the withdrawal. Ralph McNamara, an Army veteran, wants investigative action taken to “hold people accountable,” he said.

Said Peters: “The military’s, you know, motto of ‘not leaving anybody behind,’ that’s important,” Peters said. “And that’s something that we need to keep in mind and keep focused on and getting veterans in Congress will help us do that.”

Veterans also discussed concerns about recruitment for the military. NBC News reported in June that every military branch struggled to meet its recruiting goals for fiscal year 2022.

“We can get the technology, but if we don’t have the men and women to work it, it doesn’t help,” Air Force veteran John Moore said. “We’re losing quality people.”

Rob Novotny, another Air Force veteran, said he wants to see the perceived politicization of the military removed to help with recruitment.

Denise Ashurst, an Air Force veteran who ran for Assembly but lost in the Republican primary, said she wanted to see funding increase for the military.

The U.S. spends the most of any country on its military at $750 billion, with China second at $237 billion, according to World Population Review.

McCarthy brought up concerns about China increasing its military operations and some of its expansions into space, such as its landing on the dark side of the moon in 2019.

Peters and Robertson say they hope they can secure veteran votes, as vets traditionally lean more Republican, according to a 2019 Pew Research Center survey.

Pelosi touts law

At Acelero Learning Clark County, a Head Start campus in the central part of the valley, Pelosi joined Horsford, D-Nev., and Clark County Commissioner Marilyn Kirkpatrick for a roundtable discussion about what the Inflation Reduction Act means for women and children.

“Our president wants this to be about everyone participating in the fullest way: women, people of color, people who have not had the opportunity to participate in growing our economy and participating in its prosperity,” she said during a news conference.

Pelosi said she enjoys her Las Vegas visits to see how well public, private and nonprofit entities work together. She also gave an ode to the late Sen. Harry Reid.

“I can’t come here without thinking about my dear, close pal, Harry Reid,” she said.

Reid and Pelosi were instrumental in 2011 in passing then-President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, an effort that did not attract a single Republican vote and required tight legislative coordination to get to the president’s desk.

Contact Jessica Hill a jehill@reviewjournal.com. Follow Jessica on Twitter @jess_hillyeah.

Review-Journal reporter Ricardo Torres-Cortez contributed to this report.