WASHINGTON (AP) – Republican leader in the House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy told fellow Republican lawmakers shortly after the Capitol uprising on January 6, 2021, that he would call on then-President Donald Trump to resign, according to an audio report published in Thursday night from The New York Times and aired on Rachel Madow’s MSNBC show.
In a January 10 recording of a Republican leadership in the House of Representatives, McCarthy was heard discussing Democrats’ efforts to remove Trump from office and saying he would tell Trump, “I think it will pass and my recommendation will be for him to resigned. “
It is unclear whether McCarthy, who is on track to become Speaker of the House of Representatives if Republicans gain control during the fall midterm elections, has followed his thinking or simply tossed ideas shared privately with colleagues after the deadly Capitol attack.
In the same conversation, McCarthy told his colleagues that he doubted that Trump would accept the council’s resignation.
“That would be my recommendation,” McCarthy was heard saying in response to a question from Liz Cheney’s spokeswoman, R-Wyo, who will emerge as a staunch critic of Trump. “I don’t think he’ll take it, but I don’t know.”
Earlier Thursday, after the Times published its original story describing the conversation, McCarthy issued a statement calling it “completely untrue and wrong.” His spokesman Mark Bednar told the newspaper: “McCarthy never said he would call Trump to say he had to resign.
Bednar did not immediately answer questions late Thursday night after the audio recording was released. Trump’s representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the tape.
Audio threatens to seriously damage relations between McCarthy and Trump, who remains the most popular figure in the Republican Party, despite his role in inciting the January 6 uprising and refusing to accept the results of the 2020 election. of McCarthy with Republicans in the House of Representatives who are in line with Trump, whose support he will need to vote to become Speaker of the House next year.
Audio portrays a very different McCarthy from the one who led Republicans in the House of Representatives for the past year and a half and who remained an ally of Trump even after giving a speech in the hall shortly after Jan. 6, during which he called for an attack on the Capitol. non-American. ” At the time, McCarthy called the attack one of the saddest days of his career and told fellow Republicans that Trump was “responsible” for the violence.
However, even after the violence, McCarthy joined half of the Republicans in the House of Representatives to challenge Joe Biden’s election victory.
Since then, the California Republican has distanced himself from any criticism of Trump and has avoided directly linking him to what happened. In the weeks since the siege of the Capitol, McCarthy said he did not think Trump provoked the attack, as other prominent Republicans said at the time.
Instead, McCarthy calmed down with Trump by visiting him at the former president’s Florida residence in Mar-a-Lago, as he relies on the former president’s brand to support the campaign this fall.
McCarthy said in an interview with the Associated Press this week in California that Trump will motivate voters to run for the party in the midterm elections this fall.
“He will motivate, he will bring out a lot of people,” McCarthy said at a GOP event in Fresno.
The Times report on Thursday was adapted from the forthcoming book “This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden and the Battle for the Future of America” by Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns.
In the audio recording, Cheney, who eventually lost her lead at number 3 after voting in favor of Trump’s impeachment, could be heard asking McCarthy for a 25th Amendment resolution calling for Trump’s ouster and whether Trump could resigned.
“I had several discussions. My gut tells me no. I’m seriously thinking of having this conversation with him tonight, “McCarthy is heard saying. “What I think I’m going to do is call him.”
“I think it will pass and my recommendation is for him to resign,” he added later. “I mean, that would be my opinion, but I don’t think he would accept it. But I do not know.”
McCarthy, 57, is strategically outlining his own delicate course as he positions himself to try to take over as speaker if Republicans return to the House. He began building his leadership team and last summer commissioned several groups of Republican lawmakers to draft proposals for the party’s top legislative priorities in hopes of making a quick start in 2023.
But even as he approaches the leadership of the House, McCarthy is well aware of the downside of power in recent months, as far-right members of the conference have created headaches with provocative actions and statements.
There was little immediate reaction from Republicans Thursday night to determine his future.
Of course, no other Republican leader in the House of Representatives has amassed a position to challenge McCarthy’s leadership position.
McCarthy has recruited a newcomer class to strengthen the Republican Party and raised millions to support Republican campaigns. He brought his closest rivals into the fold, even as he worked to support the voices that would be needed to become a speaker.
An outside group, led by McCarthy, is leading the fundraiser ahead of the midterm elections, and ordinary Republicans working to restore a majority in the House are unlikely to be critical of the leader before November.
However, McCarthy was also of interest to a House of Representatives committee investigating the January 6 storming of the Capitol. The elected committee, of which Cheney is vice president, requested an interview with McCarthy in mid-January, hoping to learn more about his talks with Trump “before, during and after” the uprising.
They also sought information about McCarthy’s communications with former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows in the days before the attack. Hours after the request, McCarthy issued a statement saying he would refuse to cooperate because he believed the investigation was illegitimate and accused the commission of “abuse of power”.
The committee was particularly focused on McCarthy’s communications with Trump and White House officials in the week after the violence, including a conversation with Trump that reportedly heated up.
Without his cooperation, it remains unclear whether the committee will be able to receive testimony from McCarthy or other Trump allies in Congress. Although the committee has considered calling on fellow MPs, they have so far avoided doing so, as it would be an extraordinary move and could face legal and political challenges.
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