KEVIN McCarthy skirted questions today about his January 6 phone call with Donald Trump as the Capitol riot was underway.
The House Minority Leader insisted his conversations with the former president were a personal and private matter and that Trump offered to help calm the mob.
During an interview on Fox News on Sunday, McCarthy said Trump was not aware of what was going on at the Capitol when he first reached him on the phone.
He said: "I was the first person to contact him when the riots were going on.
"He didn't see it. What he ended the call with saying was telling me he'll put something out to make sure to stop this.
“And that's what he did. He put a video out later."
My conversations with the president are my conversations with the president
Host Chris Wallace pointed out the video Trump posted was "quite a lot later," and he said it "was a pretty weak video."
In this clip, the then-president urged the rioters to "go home," saying "we love you. You're very special."
In February, a Republican congresswoman, Jaime Herrera Beutler, said McCarthy told her what Trump said on a call as the riot progressed.
Beutler, one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for his conduct surrounding the deadly riot, released a statement.
It said: "When McCarthy finally reached the president on January 6 and asked him to publicly and forcefully call off the riot, the president initially repeated the falsehood that it was Antifa that had breached the Capitol.
"McCarthy refuted that and told the president that these were Trump supporters.
"That's when, according to McCarthy, the president said: 'Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are.'"
This account contradicted Trump’s claim that he took immediate action to stop an attack
But when asked about the call, McCarthy said: "My conversations with the president are my conversations with the president.
"I engaged in the idea of making sure we could stop what was going on inside the Capitol at that moment in time.
"The president said he would help."
Days after the deadly Capitol riot, McCarthy was clearly angry at Trump,saying on the House floor the then-president "bears responsibility" for the violence,
He added Trump "should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding".
But just three weeks after the insurrection, McCarthy had made up with Trump, visiting the ex-president at this Mar-a-Lago gold resort to discuss the future of the Republican Party.
Source: Read Full Article
