House minority leader Kevin McCarthy has denied that he believes President Donald Trump should step down following the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, despite an audio recording saying otherwise.
Responding to the controversy for the first time Friday night, McCarthy told CBS News reporters in California that he had never offered Trump a proposal to step down, adding that he had no idea it would happen.
“No, I did not ask the president to step down. “I didn’t think he should come down,” McCarthy said Friday.
Kevin McCarthy told lawmaker Cheney that he would tell President Trump, “I would recommend that he step down.”
Now he says, “The president never asked me to resign and I didn’t even think about resigning. pic.twitter.com/NutcI7nLzW
– Musadiq Bidar (@ Bidar411) April 23, 2022
In the audio recording published by the New York Times, McCarthy was heard clearly telling the Republican leadership that he would call Trump and urge him to step down. He said in a statement that he believes the impeachment resolution is imminent and he tells Trump, “My recommendation is that you resign.”
Later, McCarthy said in another conversation with the House of Representatives leadership that he had talked to the president and that Trump was responsible for the attack on the Capitol.
The first report of the New York Times conversation, released Thursday, did not include audio and McCarthy explicitly denied it, calling it “completely wrong and inaccurate.” The newspaper then confirmed its report by publishing an audio.
“I was dealing with this guy,” McCarthy said, referring to Trump.
At another point he said: “I want to be very clear to all of you, and I have said this very clearly to the President: he is responsible for his words and actions. Not if, and or but. “
McCarthy seems to be working Behind the scenes To quell controversy and strengthen ties with the former president, who is still big on the Republican Party. A McCarthy spokesman did not respond to a HuffPost request for comment Friday. In an interview published Friday night, Trump Lo told the Wall Street Journal that his relationship with McCarthy remains “very strong.”
“I think it’s a great compliment, to be honest,” Trump told the magazine when McCarthy and other members of his party later realized they were wrong.
Speaking to reporters Friday night, McCarthy tried to blame the deadly attack, saying he changed his views on the uprising after hearing that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi blocked National Guard troops from ground response. That is not true.
“While we were working and a few days later, we heard that Nancy Pelosi denied the National Guard there that she could defend the Capitol. “People are getting angrier,” he said wrongly.
Source: Huffpost
