McCarthy defends remarks on Trump

He gets GOP colleagues’ applause

WASHINGTON — House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy told colleagues Wednesday he never asked then-President Donald Trump to resign over the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol as he defended private conversations around the siege that have spilled into the open.

It was the first time McCarthy, who is in line to become House speaker if Republicans win control in the fall midterm election, addressed his colleagues face-to-face as he works to stem the fallout from his criticisms of Trump and far- right members of their party. He received a standing ovation.

“He’s got the support of the conference and then some,” Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Pa., said.

Yet amid the show of support, McCarthy was challenged by two of the party’s most hard-right lawmakers — Matt Gaetz of Florida and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia — who said they felt particularly singled out by the leadership team for their comments around Jan. 6. Trump ally Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., who helped organize challenges to the 2020 election results, also voiced concerns, another Republican said.

But the detractors appeared to be in a minority as rank-and-file lawmakers rallied around McCarthy, the man who recruited many of them to Congress and is now raising untold millions to help them win back the House majority.

McCarthy is at a critical juncture as he works to ascend to the top leadership position.

New audio recordings released in recent days by The New York Times portray McCarthy as fed up with Trump in the aftermath of the Capitol attack, when the defeated president rallied his supporters to head to Congress and object to Democrat Joe Biden’s election victory.

In the recordings, McCarthy is heard telling Republicans privately that he was considering asking Trump to resign. In another recording released late Tuesday, McCarthy warns that dangerous public commentary from Gaetz and others is “putting people in jeopardy” of potential violence.

McCarthy has denied The New York Times account of events, leading Democrats and others to call him a liar, as audio of the secretly recorded calls was released.

On Wednesday, McCarthy stood at party headquarters and defended his actions, suggesting he was merely running through possible scenarios as Democrats moved to impeach Trump in the aftermath of the violent siege.

In the GOP meeting, McCarthy clearly stated that he never asked the president to resign, the Republicans said. He has also publicly said he did not do so.

The Times did not report that he asked Trump to resign, only that he told Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., and other members he would.

As president, Trump had affectionately referred to McCarthy as “My Kevin,” one of his earliest endorsers, but in the days after the riot, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell gave speeches against Trump, and McCarthy’s public and private conversations at that time show flashes of anger over the riot by Trump supporters.

But once Biden took office McCarthy quickly went to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida to patch things up with the defeated president.

Trump and McCarthy spoke last week, and the former president told the leader he was “not mad” about the disclosures.