"The president has the right to select [his] team, just as I do in my office," Kevin McCarthy said. | Getty Hill Republicans duck questions on Bannon

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) defended President-elect Donald Trump's appointment of Steve Bannon as his top strategist, saying Trump can pick whoever he wants for his administration.

McCarthy also said Republicans, who will have control of both the White House and Congress next year, will get off to a fast start in enacting Trump's agenda.


Yet McCarthy, a California Republican, didn't want to get drawn into the controversy over Bannon, who has been accused of racist and anti-Semitic views. Bannon was also arrested for domestic violence allegations in 1996, although the charges were later dropped.

McCarthy's position on Bannon is like that of other GOP congressional leaders — Trump won the election and has the right to staff his administration as he chooses.

"The president-elect always gets to pick his team going forward," McCarthy told reporters on Monday. "Steve Bannon and Reince Priebus [Trump's chief of staff] worked very closely together on this campaign... The president has the right to select who he thinks to be able to move through."

McCarthy added: "I don't know Steve. I did talk to Steve yesterday. I talked to the president-elect again yesterday. I talked to Reince."

The normally affable McCarthy pushed back on questions about Bannon, saying that too much was being read into the selection.

"The president has the right to select [his] team, just as I do in my office," he said.

The exchange with McCarthy shows the pressure Capitol Hill Republicans will come under as Trump's presidency unfolds. While Trump will try to ignore criticism from the mainstream press, his allies on Capitol Hill won't be able to escape it.

McCarthy also faced repeated questions about when Republicans will move to repeal Obamacare, as well as enacting Trump's promise to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexican border while also deporting millions of undocumented immigrants.

"We're further along than we have ever been in the past" toward repealing Obamacare, McCarthy said, although it is unclear what programs Republicans will enact to provide medical coverage for those who are received insurance under the Affordable Care Act.

"These are things we're going to be meeting about now — what is the schedule to how we deal with this," McCarthy added.