McCarthy downplays remarks about Trump in secret recording
Source: AP
By ALAN FRAM
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Monday downplayed secretly recorded remarks he made about Donald Trump shortly after last year’s attack on the Capitol. He also said he never told the then-president that he should resign — something news organizations have not reported.
McCarthy’s comments were his first public remarks since The New York Times reported last week that on a Jan. 10, 2021, phone call with fellow Republicans, he said he was “seriously thinking” about telling Trump “he should resign.” McCarthy initially called that report “totally false and wrong.” The newspaper later released a recording of him making those remarks and it was played on Rachel Maddow’s MSNBC show.
The Times and others have not reported that McCarthy ever followed through and called Trump to urge him to step down. Critics have said the recordings and his denial of what he said show McCarthy to be a liar.
Trump was impeached by the House for encouraging a mob of his supporters who violently stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, trying to disrupt Congress’ counting of the Electoral College votes in his November 2020 reelection defeat. He was exonerated by the Senate even though seven Republicans voted to convict him, the most ever to find a president of their own party guilty in an impeachment trial.
FILE - House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., talks to reporters at the Capitol in Washington, April 6, 2022. McCarthy is downplaying secretly recorded remarks he made about Donald Trump shortly after last year's attack on the Capitol. He also says he never told the then-president that he should resign — something that has not been reported. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/capitol-siege-donald-trump-kevin-mccarthy-rachel-maddow-congress-731fd46f7dea24b2611b6eec2d37b565
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