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Publish: Thursday January 13, 2022 | 5:10 pm | অনলাইন সংস্করণ
The private and public versions of what House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said about the attack on the Capitol at the time and what he would say later did not and do not match up. Those questions loom over McCarthy’s desire to become the next House speaker — and will be shaped by former President Donald Trump’s insistence on continuing to litigate the past.
The Jan. 6 committee now wants McCarthy’s “voluntary cooperation,” in a move that was long expected but has significant implications on the investigation as well as internal GOP politics. The Republican leader, who holds his weekly news conference on Thursday, has ducked most direct questions about what he and Trump discussed in real time.
According to Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Wash., McCarthy told her Trump blamed antifa agitators for the Capitol attack and responded, when told they were Trump supporters, “Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are.”
In his book “Betrayal,” ABC’s Jonathan Karl recounts McCarthy imploring Trump to call off the attackers in the midst of the evacuation of House leaders, only to get a response that built on the false allegation that the election was stolen: “They are more upset than you because they believe it more than you, Kevin.”
The committee’s letter to McCarthy cites other reports that could lead in different directions. The letter asserts that McCarthy “may have also discussed” with Trump the possibility that he would resign, be impeached or censured, or that he could be removed from office under the 25th Amendment.
In recent days, Trump’s attack on Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., served as a reminder that the former president is intent on keeping alive the fiction that the election was stolen.
McCarthy has said “I wouldn’t hide from anything” when it comes to answering questions about Jan. 6, though he said in a statement Wednesday night he would not be cooperating with the committee. In any event, there remain questions for which he has no apparent good answers.
The RUNDOWN with Averi Harper
Fresh off his fiery address on voting rights in Georgia, President Biden is now doing the work that civil rights activists, including those who intentionally snubbed his trip, wanted him to do — putting pressure on lawmakers in Washington to pass voting reforms.
Biden, a 36-year veteran of the Senate, is trekking back to his old haunt Thursday to meet with Senate Democrats to push for a rule change that would allow for the passage of voting reform legislation and “make the institution work again,” according to a White House official.
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