by WorldTribune Staff, April 22, 2022
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy rebutted reports on leaked audio where he told Republican leadership, including Rep. Liz Cheney, that he would call on President Donald Trump to resign following the events at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Cheney also denied involvement in the leak.
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on Thursday broadcast audio which is included in a new book — “This Will Not Pass,” by New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns — who reported the following exchange from a House GOP leadership call on Jan. 10, 2021:
McCarthy: “Liz, you on the phone?”
Cheney: “Yeah, I’m, here. Thanks, Kevin. … Are you hearing that he might resign? Is there any reason to think that might happen?”
McCarthy: “I’ve had a few discussions. My gut tells me no. I’m seriously thinking of having that conversation with him tonight. I haven’t talked to him in a couple days. From what I know of him — I mean, you guys all know him, too. Do you think he’d ever back away? But what I think I’m going to do is, I’m going to call him. … [T]he only discussion I would have with him is that I think this [impeachment resolution] will pass, and it would be my recommendation you should resign. I mean, that would be my take. But I don’t think he would take it. But I don’t know.”
McCarthy on Thursday tweeted a statement saying: “The New York Times’ reporting on me is totally false and wrong. … If the reporters were interested in truth why would they ask for comment after the book was printed?”
A Cheney spokesperson told Axios: “Representative Cheney did not record or leak the tape and does not know how the reporters got it.”
Here’s the McCarthy tape @alexburnsNYT and I obtained https://t.co/7ELJsvQJcj
— Jonathan Martin (@jmartNYT) April 22, 2022
The Times reporters also said that McCarthy called Trump’s actions on Jan. 6 “atrocious and totally wrong” in a call with Republicans on Jan. 8, and reportedly floated the idea of getting certain lawmakers banned from social media.
McCarthy spokesperson Mark Bednar told the Times that “McCarthy never said he’d call Trump to say he should resign” and that the leader also “never said that particular members should be removed from Twitter.”
McCarthy’s statement:
“It comes as no surprise that the corporate media is obsessed with doing everything it can to further a liberal agenda,” the statement reads. “This promotional book tour is no different. If the reporters were interested in truth, why would they ask for comment after the book was printed?
“The past year and a half have proven that our country was better off when President Trump was in the White House and rather than address the real issues facing Americans, the corporate media is more concerned with profiting from manufactured political intrigue from politically-motivated sources.
“Our country has suffered enough under one-party Democrat rule and no amount of media ignorance and bias will stop Americans from delivering a clear message this fall that it is time for change.”
Lauren Fine, the spokeswoman for House Republican Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana, told Fox News Digital that neither Scalise nor any of his staffers leaked the audio.
“Millions of American are suffering right now under President Biden and Speaker Pelosi’s big-government socialist agenda that has given us record high inflation, with skyrocketing gas prices and a border crisis, yet the only thing the Democrat media continues to obsess over is January 6th,” Fine said.
“Whip Scalise’s sole focus is on working with his colleagues to stop the radical Democrat agenda,” she continued. “Neither he nor anyone on his team recorded or leaked private conversations among members.”
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