Even the smoothest GOP talker would struggle two days after President Trump caved and ended the weeks-long government shutdown. Host Chuck Todd summed up the bleak situation in his first question to McCarthy: “On day one of the shutdown, the president had a deal in front of him that was essentially a continuing resolution for three weeks, no [border] wall. That’s the deal he agreed to on day 35. What was accomplished?” McCarthy had no answer to the question. Instead, he questioned what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) accomplished and offered banalities such as “I give President Trump a lot of credit. He put the American people before politics.” Nor could McCarthy later answer why the White House would expect Democrats to accept a permanent border wall for temporary protection for “dreamers.” Four times, McCarthy fell back on declaring that Trump was being “reasonable” while Democrats weren’t.

So far, so standard spin — a party leader trying to make the best of a bad situation. But McCarthy went beyond “glass half-full” to comically delusional. First, when Todd pointed out that Trump was still threatening to declare a national emergency to build the border wall, McCarthy replied, “That is not true.” It was an odd claim to make, given that Trump said the exact opposite two days ago. “We’ll work with the Democrats and negotiate, and if we can’t do that, then we’ll do a — obviously we’ll do the emergency because that’s what it is. It’s a national emergency,” the president declared Friday.

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Then, when Todd asked, “Why did [Trump] shut down the government?” McCarthy replied, “He did not shut down the government.” As Todd incredulously responded, “Who else did it?” It was Trump who said publicly he’d be “proud” to own the shutdown. It was Trump who changed his mind on a clean continuing resolution over a month ago. It was Trump who threatened during the shutdown to keep the government closed. And it is Trump’s base who is now furious at the president for caving — in other words, for not keeping the government shut down.

It’s one thing for a political leader to turn every answer into the best-case scenario for his or her party and the worst-case scenario for the opposition. That’s what most politicians do, some more artfully than others. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), on the same show, also argued the GOP case, but at least admitted that another shutdown would be “a terrible idea.” McCarthy, though, essentially asked viewers, “Who do you believe, me or your lying eyes and ears?” Which elicits another question in reply: Is this man really the best House Republicans have left to offer?