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House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, of California, defended himself on Wednesday during his first face-to-face meeting with Republicans in the House of Representatives after audio recordings revealed he blamed then-President Donald Trump for the January 6, 2021 attack. The pro-Trump Capitol crowd expressed concern for fellow Republican lawmakers and vowed to call on Trump to resign.
McCarthy’s argument – that he was simply involved in a “scenario conversation” for Trump – disguised the strong concerns he shared about the former president and several fellow Republicans in the House of Representatives in a telephone conversation with other Republican leaders in January 2021.
But it was one that many Republicans in the House of Representatives conference were ready to accept on Wednesday for their first meeting since the New York Times first reported on audio last week.
The stakes are high for McCarthy, who is seeking to become president of the House if Republicans re-occupy the hall in November.
So far, Trump has been ready to accept McCarthy’s explanations – the party leader called the former president after the first audio recording appeared on Thursday – and as long as McCarthy has Trump’s support, the National Party is unlikely to abandon him.
“We were all trying to figure out what happened, why it happened, why didn’t we stop it? … We all tried to overcome this while the dust was settling and then the dust was settling. And I think he came to the right conclusions, “spokesman Jodie Arrington (R-Tex.) Told McCarthy after Wednesday’s meeting.
“This is a snapshot of someone just trying to get through something that was serious and just trying to make sense of it,” Arrington added. “But I can tell you this: every member had a similar process, whether or not he was enrolled.”
Several Republicans in the House of Representatives, including Trump’s allies Andy Biggs (Arizona) and Matt Gates (Florida), publicly criticized McCarthy on Tuesday. Biggs, a former speaker of the Conservative Parliament for Freedom, said McCarthy’s actions were “incredibly undermining” and created a “huge problem of trust for me.”
Goetz, one of several Republicans in the House of Representatives whom McCarthy and Steve Scaliz (R-La.) Expressed concern about in a January 2021 phone call, pounced on leaders this week.
“This is the behavior of weak men, not leaders,” Gaetz said in a statement Tuesday night.
During a meeting of the Republican House in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, McCarthy stood up, explained and delivered a speech on the return of the majority to the House in November, according to several attendees.
He was greeted with applause, attendees said.
Two Republicans in the House said Gaetz was the only lawmaker to criticize McCarthy during the meeting. According to one of the deputies, a representative of Don Bacon (Heaven), Gaetz “spoke and was angry. … You can ask Matt Gaetz what he said.
In a report Tuesday night, the New York Times detailed McCarthy’s comments to fellow Republican leaders about several members of the Republican House conference in the House of Representatives days after the Jan. 6 attack. The actions of Gaetz and Representative Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), In particular, have crossed the line, McCarthy suggested, noting that Brooks used incendiary language during a speech on January 6 and that Gaetz named Representative Liz Cheney (R-Ala. Wyo.) For criticism in television appearances.
“He puts people in danger,” McCarthy told Gaetz, according to the Times. In the same call, Scaliz suggested that Gaetz’s actions were “potentially illegal”, according to the report.
After Wednesday’s meeting, Gaetz dismissed reports that Scalise said Gaetz had threatened a Cheney employee last year, calling the allegation “spinning to cover up a lie.”
Representative Marjorie Taylor Green (R-Ga.), A freshman MP who was suspended from her commitments for her extremist remarks, also stood up during the meeting and asked Scalise to apologize for the remarks she made during the phone call. , according to two Republicans from the House of Representatives who attended.
During a phone call on January 10, 2021, McCarthy and leaders of the House Republican Party also expressed concern about the actions of other Republicans in the House, including Lauren Beabert (Colorado), Barry Moore (Alabama) and Louis Homer (Texas). according to a Times report.
The Times first reported last week on a conversation McCarthy told Trump: “I had it with this man. What he did is unacceptable. No one can defend this and no one has to defend it. “
In the recording, McCarthy can also be heard telling Republicans in the House of Representatives that he plans to tell Trump that “it would be my recommendation to resign.”
McCarthy initially denied the Times report on his remarks, calling them “completely false and erroneous.” After the Times released the audio recording of the phone call, McCarthy told reporters that “he never thought that [Trump] he has been avoiding questions on the subject ever since. McCarthy said Monday that the Times had asked him if he had insisted that Trump resign. The newspaper had not made such a claim in its history.
On Tuesday night in the Capitol, reporters asked McCarthy why he had not taken action to punish lawmakers he mentioned in a telephone conversation – and about criticism from spokesman Steve Womack (R-Ark.) That McCarthy had failed to show leadership. .
Finally, when asked if he was worried that any of this would hurt his chances of potentially becoming a speaker, McCarthy said in one word, “No.”
Many Republicans in the House of Representatives who attended the meeting Wednesday morning said they stood by McCarthy and that the party was united in keeping its focus on winning the midterm elections in November, not on intra-party battles.
“At this point, we see most members behind the leadership,” said spokesman Robert B. Aderholt (R-Ala.). He added of McCarthy: “I support him as a speaker. He did a good job of trying to get this conference to where it is today. ”
Representative Brian Babin (R-Tex.) Tried to return the focus to Democrats and said Republicans would not be “separated by rhetoric coming from the opposite side” on the path.
“I think there are so many other important crises that we need to highlight. The American people also want to hear answers. Why is their gasoline so high? ”Babin said.
Representative Glenn Grotman (R-Wis.) Said he was “absolutely” pleased with the opportunity to speak to McCarthy. He said he had not listened to the audio recording of McCarthy’s phone call.
“I did not listen to him. And do you know why? “Unless you’re a member of the press, no one cares about January 6,” Grotman said. “Nobody cares.”
However, some Republicans said they were refraining from sentencing McCarthy and suggested they would not decide on the race for the Republican House of Representatives until after the November election.
“At the moment when we have to decide who to vote for for different leadership positions, I would make that decision based on my assessment of them in my first two years and who are the candidates for these positions,” said Bob Good (R- Va.), A freshman MP who is a member of the Conservative Freedom Parliament, said after Wednesday’s meeting.
Mariana Sotomayor, Seung Min Kim and Paul Kane contributed to this report.
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