Liz Cheney on Friday denied recording or leaking audio from a phone call, which appears to indicate that House of Representatives minority leader Kevin McCarthy says he will tell then-President Donald Trump to resign following the Capitol uprising. on January 6.
Part of that call, dated January 10, 2021, aired Thursday night on MSNBC’s Rachel Madow Show. Hours earlier, McCarthy had denied saying he would tell Trump to step down.
In the audio clip, a California Republican can be heard telling Cheney, R-Wyatt, that he believes Trump will be impeachment in the House of Representatives and possibly convicted in the Senate after the January 6 uprising.
“The only discussion I would have with him is that I think this will pass and my recommendation is to resign,” McCarthy said according to the recording.
Later on Friday, the press aired a separate audio clip of McCarthy from January 11, 2021. In it, McCarthy told senior Republicans in the House of Representatives that Trump had admitted some responsibility for the Capitol uprising.
“What he did is unacceptable. No one can defend it and no one should defend it,” McCarthy said, according to the latest recording.
The remarks came days after a crowd of Trump supporters, fueled by the then-president’s false allegations that widespread fraud cost him the 2020 election, stormed the Capitol and disrupted MPs’ confirmation of President Joe Biden’s victory.
A spokesman for Cheney, one of two Republicans on the House of Representatives’ committee of inquiry into the Capitol riot, said in a statement Friday morning that the congresswoman “did not record or leak the tape and did not know how reporters got it.”
“The elected committee asked Kevin McCarthy to talk to us about these events, but he has so far refused,” the spokesman said.
A McCarthy spokesman did not respond immediately to CNBC’s request for comment. The spokesman also did not immediately explain the discrepancy between McCarthy’s notes and his previous statement, which denied that McCarthy had said he would force Trump to resign.
The bombings could jeopardize McCarthy’s hopes of becoming Speaker of the House if Republicans regain control of the 2022 by-elections. Most Republicans in the House of Representatives – who would vote to make McCarthy a speaker – loyal to Trump.
Although he lost the 2020 election to Biden and continued to spread conspiracy theories suggesting that the race was set against him, Trump is the most popular figure in the GOP and its de facto leader. He hinted that he would run for president again in 2024.
The New York Times reported Thursday that McCarthy and other Republican leaders, including Senate Minority Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, initially vowed to oust Trump from politics after the Jan. 6 uprising. They quickly withdrew due to fears of retaliation from Trump and his supporters, the newspaper said.
“I had it with this man,” McCarthy told a group of Republican leaders in the days after the attack, according to the Times. The newspaper’s report is based on details from the forthcoming book “This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden and the Battle for the Future of America” by Times reporters Alexander Burns and Jonathan Martin, who obtained McCarthy’s audio recordings.
In a conversation with leading Republicans – apparently the same call that came from one of the audio clips – McCarthy also wondered aloud whether technology companies could suspend the social media accounts of some Republican lawmakers.
“Can’t they take away their Twitter accounts?” He reportedly asked.
McCarthy issued a statement Thursday calling the Times’ reports about him “completely false and erroneous.” He accused the “corporate media” of promoting a “liberal agenda” and added that Biden’s presidency had shown that America “was better off when President Trump was in the White House.”
The Times report includes a resignation from McCarthy’s spokesman Mark Bednar, who said the Republican leader “never said he would call Trump to say he had to resign.”
But the audio clip shared Thursday night seems to contradict that claim.
In the recording, Cheney mentions the 25th Amendment, a constitutional process to remove a president from office. She then asked McCarthy, “What will happen if you get there after he leaves?” Is there a chance? Do you hear that he can resign? Is there any reason to think that this could happen?
McCarthy replied, “I’ve had a few discussions. Instincts tell me no. I’m seriously thinking of having this conversation with him tonight. I haven’t spoken to him in days.”
McCarthy said he doubted Trump would agree to step down. He added that the attempt to impeach Trump will definitely pass the House of Representatives and probably the Senate, even if the final vote comes after Trump had to leave office on January 20, 2021.
“But what I think I’m going to do is call him,” McCarthy said. “There are many different consequences to that.”
“The only discussion I would have with him is that I think this will pass and it is my recommendation that you resign,” McCarthy said. “Um, I mean, that would be my decision, but I don’t think he would accept it. But I do not know.”
On Friday, Martin and Burns appeared on CNN, where they shared another video of McCarthy talking to Republican leaders in the House of Representatives shortly after the uprising.
“Let me be very clear to all of you, and I am very clear to the president. He is responsible for his words and actions, without if, and or but, “McCarthy said in the January 11, 2021 recording, which was also received by MSNBC.
“I asked him personally today, is he responsible for what happened? Does he feel bad about what happened? He told me he was responsible for what happened. And he had to admit it,” McCarthy said.
“I know this is not fun. I know it’s not great. I know it’s very difficult, but what I want to do, especially here, is that I don’t want to rush things, “McCarthy added.
“I had it with this man. What he did is unacceptable. “No one can defend this and no one should defend it,” he said.
A Trump spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the remarks.
Less than three weeks after the calls, McCarthy traveled to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, to discuss policy strategies for the 2022 interim mandate.
The House of Representatives has accused Trump of inciting an uprising in his last days in power. Only 10 Republicans in the House of Representatives voted for impeachment.
The Senate acquitted Trump after Biden took office. McCarthy and McConnell voted against the effort.
Cheney was a member of McCarthy’s leadership team at the time of the call. Republicans removed her from office last year after she voted to impeach Trump and criticized him for his role in the Capitol attack.
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