Republican Leader in the House Rep. Kevin McCarthy is almost giddy over Republican prospects to retake the House of Representatives in November. With Bernie Sanders leading the ticket, McCarthy predicts a Republican sweep.

He says the Democrats have “surrendered to socialists.”

Fox News:

In an interview with Fox News on the sidelines of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) outside Washington, McCarthy weighed in on the warnings from within the Democratic Party that a Sanders nomination could endanger their hold on the House under Nancy Pelosi. McCarthy would be in line for the speakership should the chamber flip — and he eagerly played up those internal party tensions. “The Democrats have surrendered to the socialists,” McCarthy told Fox News. “There is a reason why Bernie Sanders is going to become their nominee and that’s because this is no longer the Democratic Party — this is a socialist Democratic Party.” “With AOC, [Rep. Rashida] Tlaib, [Ilan] Omar — they don’t call themselves Democrats,” he continued. “They call themselves socialist Democrats.”

True enough. But many lo- information voters might not have a clue what voting for Sanders and the Democrats really means. If the CPAC conference is a preview of November, you’d have to be living under a rock to be unaware of the danger to the republic if Sanders were to win the presidency.

McCarthy was underscoring the narrative of the conservative conference itself, where numerous President Trump allies hammered the message that his administration and campaign are fighting for America against socialism, represented by Democratic figures like Sanders. “This is where the party has gone. … That’s why they’re going to lose the majority,” the California Republican told Fox News. McCarthy touted the accomplishments of the Trump administration, saying that with “four more years” of President Trump “the next century would be ours.”

With more than a billion dollars ready to get the message out on Sanders, the Trump campaign is already trying out attack themes in these early state primaries. Exaggeration is unnecessary. Simply quoting Sanders at his socialist-communist-sympathizing best would convict him out of his own mouth.

The trick will be for the national Republicans Party to tie all Democrats to the Sanders millstone. It worked for Democrats in 2018 when they nationalized the election by making Trump the issue. And it should be even easier for Republicans in 2020.