After an audiotape surfaced showing Congressman Kevin McCarthy, declaring that then-President Donald Trump should hand in his resignation amid the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, the leading Republican in the House of Representatives was chastised by several of his fellow Republicans, Reuters reports.
McCarthy’s statements, which he denied only hours before the video surfaced, might jeopardize his publicly acknowledged goal of becoming House speaker next year if Republicans win the majority of the chamber in November’s midterm elections.
However, when McCarthy’s words drew widespread condemnation on social media, the Washington Post claimed that the Congressman and Trump had talked on the phone and that the former president seemed unconcerned with his sentiments. This may drastically dampen Trump supporters’ rank-and-file reaction.
The audio, which was recorded just days after Trump fans barged into the Capitol, delaying the certification of the 2020 presidential election of Democrat Joe Biden’s victory, captures a dialogue between McCarthy and Representative Liz Cheney, who was sacked from the Republican Party leadership weeks later for her opposition to Trump.
McCarthy informed Cheney that he planned to phone Trump to explore a procedure for invoking the 25th Amendment, which would have allowed then-Vice President Mike Pence and other Cabinet members to oust Trump from office.
McCarthy’s remarks were first mentioned in a New York Times piece released on Thursday as part of a book written by two Times writers.
McCarthy allegedly told other Republican leaders that he desired giant tech firms to deactivate the social media accounts of politicians who backed Trump’s phony accusations of a rigged 2020 election, according to the newspaper.
In remarks on Friday, Biden alluded to the clip, stating that the Republicans had become “a MAGA party now,” referring to Trump’s slogan “Make America Great Again.” Republicans who privately oppose Trump are afraid to speak out publicly, he claims.
The political future of Kevin McCarthy will be mainly determined by Trump, who is still the Republican Party’s most dominant figure upwards of a year after leaving office.
McCarthy and Trump spoke on Thursday night, according to two anonymous people, and the former president was relieved that Trump did not follow through on his intention to ask him to quit, seeing it as proof of his ongoing hold on the Republican Party.
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