Before he was obediently helping ex-President Donald Trump stonewall the House Jan. 6 Committee’s investigation into the Capitol insurrection, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was privately stressing the need for an investigation in the days after the attack.
On Wednesday night, New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns released new audio of one of McCarthy’s calls with fellow Republicans on Jan. 11 last year, during which the GOP leader declared that it was essential to get to the bottom of the insurrection.
“We cannot just sweep this under the rug. We need to know why it happened, who did it, and people need to be held accountable for it,” he said. “And I’m committed to making sure that happens.”
Cut to seven months later, when McCarthy (having already bashed the bipartisan proposal for a commission to investigate Jan. 6) tried to undermine the legitimacy of the House Jan. 6 Committee by purposefully choosing GOP members he knew House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) wouldn’t approve, giving him cover to 1) refuse to participate in the probe and 2) feed into Trump’s narrative that the investigation was a Democratic partisan attack.
That narrative imploded when GOP Reps. Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) joined the committee.
Now McCarthy refuses to cooperate with the committee’s subpoena.
In another newly released clip of the same Jan. 11 call, McCarthy described a phone conversation he had with Trump as the insurrection was unfolding.
“When they started breaking into my office, myself and the staff got removed from the office,” the GOP leader recounted. “In doing so, I made a phone call to the President telling him what was going on, asking him to tell these people to stop, to make a video and go out.”
McCarthy made sure his colleagues knew just how very serious and tough and unflinching he was with Trump.
“I was very intense and very loud about it,” he said.
The recordings are the latest of the damning tapes being released by Martin and Burns for their new book, “This Will Not Pass.”
And like those other tapes, these latest recordings exposed the astonishing extent to which McCarthy, with his eye on potentially becoming House speaker after the midterms, backpedaled on holding Trump accountable for the attack.
Listen to the tapes below:
Correction: This article previously stated the wrong day for when the Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns tapes were released. TPM regrets this error.
I have to wonder how many R’s (both in politics and out) are secretly hoping for TFG to be indicted, convicted and imprisoned, so they don’t have to deal with him any more.
What they haven’t planned for, is the Trump 2024 campaign, run from a Georgia State Prison.
“Profiles in Cowardice”, The Kevin McCarthy Story.
Spineless partisan weasel and hack Kevin McCarthy had a transient twinge of conscience and a momentary attack of decency and patriotism.
It passed.
Cults don’t mind lying…it’s just another tactic to get what they want. That means that their connection to the truth is conditional. That means that conventional logic (using facts to change perceptions) is weakened…So RWNJ people are not going to be swayed by these news revelations.
But then again, who in their right mind is still referencing swaying Cult members?**
What we are trying to do is to inform those who are not Cult members but, for a number of reasons, are less tuned into the day-to-day business of politics (like wonks are).
** which does nothing but enervate.
Witnessing a miracle before our eyes…how does he remain upright without a spine…? Added bonus…he is aspiring to be the next speaker of the house…completing the further degradation of our traditional institutions.