Mccarthy, Trump have ‘positive’ call despite January 2020 audio
WASHINGTON — House Republican leader Kevin Mccarthy had a “positive” call with Donald Trump and appeared to be suffering little political blowback Friday from the release of audio in which he suggested the president should resign shortly after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection.
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.
In the audio, first posted Thursday by The New York Times and aired on Rachel Maddow’s MSNBC show, Mccarthy is heard discussing with House Republicans the Democratic effort to remove Trump from office after the president’s supporters stormed the Capitol.
In the recording of a Jan. 10, 2021, discussion, Mccarthy says he would tell Trump, “I think it will pass, and it would be my recommendation you should resign.”
Mccarthy released 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 on Friday, the Times released another recording, this time of a Jan. 11, 2021, Republican conference call. In the audio, Mccarthy can be heard telling his caucus that he had asked the former president if he felt responsible for the deadly insurrection and that Trump acknowledged some responsibility.
“I asked him personally today, does he hold responsibility for what happened?” Mccarthy says on this recording. ”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.”
The release of the audio could threaten the Republican House leader’s hold on power. 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. But a person familiar with Mccarthy’s Thursday call with Trump described it as “positive.”
“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.
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.
The Times report Thursday was adapted from a coming book, “This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden and the Battle for America’s Future,” by reporters Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns.
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.”