McCarthy Blasts Report He Planned To Push For Trump’s Resignation After Jan. 6 Attack

Topline

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) slammed a New York Times report that claimed he wanted to drive former President Donald Trump out of politics in the wake of the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, with the top House Republican asserting Thursday that “our country was better off when President Trump was in the White House.”

Then President Donald Trump speaks in the Rose Garden of the White House, flanked by House Minority … [+] Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on January 4, 2019.

Alex Wong/Getty Images

Key Facts

The Times published an article early Thursday morning stating that McCarthy planned to tell Trump that “it would be my recommendation you should resign,” once it became clear that House Democrats would move to impeach Trump after his supporters stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

McCarthy was among a group of top Republicans, along with the likes of then Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), who were reportedly furious with Trump and strategized how to distance the Republican Party from him.

McCarthy, at one point during a January 8, 2021, phone call with other top Republicans, reportedly discussed how the 25th Amendment could be invoked to remove Trump from office, but determined that approach was not feasible.

Plans for top Republicans to punish Trump were discussed in secret—and ultimately scrapped—as it became clear that Republican voters were not breaking away from Trump over the Capitol rioting, according to the report.

The Times report is based on accounts detailed in the upcoming book This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden and the Battle for America’s Future.

Crucial Quote

“The New York Times’ reporting on me is totally false and wrong,” McCarthy said. “It comes as no surprise that the corporate media is obsessed with doing everything it can to further a liberal agenda.”

Key Background

McCarthy claims that he was the first person to speak to Trump on the phone during the January 6 riot, which reportedly escalated into a screaming match as McCarthy demanded that the then president denounce the rioters. Less than a week later, McCarthy said on the House floor that Trump “bears responsibility” for his supporters attacking the Capitol, before quickly backing off from publicly condemning him. McCarthy went on to become one of the first major political figures to meet with Trump after his term ended, appearing in a photo alongside Trump at Mar-a-Lago in late January 2021. The photo reportedly irked McCarthy, who told a fellow lawmaker, “I didn’t know they were going to take a picture,” according to the Times.

Tangent

McCarthy told fellow lawmakers that he wished big tech platforms like Facebook and Twitter would delete the accounts of Republicans who pushed Trump’s false claims of widespread election fraud, according to the Times. A McCarthy spokesman told the newspaper he “never said that particular members should be removed from Twitter.”