McCarthy told GOP of Trump call
Trump took ‘some responsibility’ for Capitol riot, he said
Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the House Republican leader, told GOP lawmakers in the days after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol that former President Donald Trump acknowledged that he bore “some responsibility” for what happened that day, new audio revealed.
The audio obtained by The New York Times that emerged Friday is part of a series of new revelations about Republican leaders’ private condemnations of Trump in the days after his supporters stormed the Capitol as part of an effort to stop the certification of electoral votes for Joe Biden.
“Let me be very clear to all of you, and I have been very clear to the president: He bears responsibilities for his words and actions,” McCarthy said on the call, which took place Jan. 11. “No if, ands or buts.
“I asked him personally today, does he hold responsibility for what happened?” McCarthy said. “Does he feel bad about what happened? He told me he does have some responsibility for what happened and he’d need to acknowledge that.”
McCarthy’s assertion is at odds with the former president’s refusal, then and now, to accept responsibility for the deadly attack. It illustrates the vast gulf between the private, derisive tone Republican leaders use about the former president and their public flattery of the de facto leader of their
party.
Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
McCarthy was asked in a news conference earlier this year about the call with House Republicans after the attack. He sidestepped the question: “I’m not sure what call you’re talking about.”
The New York Times on Thursday reported that McCarthy told Republicans he planned to urge Trump to resign. The reporting is based on the upcoming book “This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden and the Battle for America’s Future” by reporters Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns.
McCarthy disputed that reporting, releasing a statement Thursday calling the report “totally false and wrong.” His spokesman, Mark Bednar, told the newspaper, “McCarthy never said he’d call Trump to say he should resign.”
But in an audio clip obtained by the Times of a different phone call with Republican lawmakers, McCarthy said he would tell Trump of the impeachment resolution: “I think this will pass, and it would be my recommendation you should resign.”
In that phone call, on Jan. 10, 2021, McCarthy was sharply critical of Trump.
“I’ve had it with this guy,” McCarthy said in another audio clip obtained by the Times. “What he did is unacceptable. Nobody can defend that, and nobody should defend it.”
The Times has reviewed the full recording of the conversation, which runs just over an hour.
In the wake of the audio release, McCarthy worked swiftly to shore up support among Republicans, calling and texting many lawmakers about his conversation with Trump as he rushed to contain the fallout.
As the House GOP leader, McCarthy is in line to become speaker if Republicans
win control in the fall’s election, and he is heavily reliant on Trump’s support to get there.
McCarthy — who on Thursday had a conversation with Trump that a person familiar with the phone call described as “positive” — appeared to be suffering little political blowback Friday.
“I’m not mad at you,” Trump told McCarthy in a call Thursday afternoon, according to a second person familiar with the conversation. Both people were granted anonymity to discuss the call. McCarthy and his office did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the Trump call.
Several Republican lawmakers came out in force Friday to defend McCarthy and reiterate that his road to speakership is still on track.
Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, tweeted that months from now, Republicans will win back the majority “and Kevin McCarthy will be Speaker of the House.”
On a Fox Business show, Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina said she supports McCarthy “100%.”
Trump and McCarthy had a strained relationship immediately after the Capitol attack, but mended their alliance after the GOP leader flew to the former president’s resort in Florida to patch up their differences.
There has been no indication that McCarthy actually told Trump he should resign. In the same conversation, McCarthy told his colleagues he doubted Trump would take the advice to step aside rather than be pushed.
“That would be my recommendation,” McCarthy is heard saying in response to a question from Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., who would emerge as a staunch Trump critic. “I don’t think he will take it, but I don’t know.”
The crowd that attacked the Capitol marched there from a rally near the White House where Trump had implored them to fight to overturn the election result. However, he has strongly denied responsibility for the violence and remains the most popular figure in the Republican Party.