Kevin McCarthy rips fellow Republicans in newly released audio for behavior surrounding Jan. 6 attack
MSNBC and CNN had a field day Tuesday with newly released audio of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy ripping fellow Republicans. This comes after McCarthy earned the ire of his colleagues when audio was released in which he talks about telling former President Trump to resign after the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol.
Though Meadows and others can be heard speaking about multiple colleagues and their behavior leading up to and following the insurrection, the most high profile one is Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida.
“I just got something sent now about Newsman, something Matt Gaetz said where he’s calling people’s names out, saying it’s anti-Trump,” McCarthy said. “In this kind of atmosphere — and some of the other places — this is serious stuff people are doing that has to stop.”
At this point, a woman’s voice can be heard saying that Gaetz had specifically called out Rep. Liz Cheney.
Rep. Steve Scalise added, “It’s potentially illegal what he’s doing.” “He’s putting people in jeopardy,” McCarthy replied. “We saw what people would do in the Capitol. These people came prepared with rope and everything.”
Video Transcript
KEVIN MCCARTHY: I just got something sent now about Newsman, something Matt Gaetz said where he's calling people's names out, saying [? I'm ?] anti-Trump. In this type of atmosphere and some of the other places this is serious stuff people are doing that has to stop.
KYLIE MAR: On Tuesday night, Rachel Maddow played newly released audio of House minority leader Kevin McCarthy talking to colleagues like representative Steve Scalise about the behavior of fellow Republican Matt Gaetz in the days following the January 6th insurrection at the Capitol.
STEVE SCALISE: It's potentially illegal what he's doing.
KEVIN MCCARTHY: Well, he's putting people in jeopardy, and he doesn't need to be doing this. We saw what people would do in the Capitol, you know? And these people came prepared with rope, with everything else.
KYLIE MAR: This new round of leaked McCarthy audio comes as leaked text messages from former chief of staff Mark Meadows' phone show that multiple Congressional Republicans were in on the failed plot to overturn the 2020 election. Over on CNN, Erin Burnett out front also played some of the audio. In this case, McCarthy and Scalise discussed Texas Representative Louie Gohmert's rhetoric leading up to the Capitol riot.
KEVIN MCCARTHY: Louie said like we needed a fight or something, right? Didn't he say something a couple of days out that was horrendous?
STEVE SCALISE: It was something like that, yes. It was incendiary.
KYLIE MAR: And finally, on a conference call, McCarthy and others react with shock to a tweet by Alabama representative Barry Moore who invoked race when tweeting about the Capitol writer who was shot and killed. At the end, McCarthy can be heard wishing that his colleagues would share the same fate as Trump.
- I understand it was a Black police officer that shot the white female veteran. You know, that doesn't fit the narrative.
LIZ CHENEY: What?
KEVIN MCCARTHY: Oh, man.
- This is what we're-- have to confront with this.
KEVIN MCCARTHY: Can't they take their Twitter accounts away too?
