Leaked audio of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy discussing asking former President Donald Trump to resign over the January 6 protest at the Capitol has been leaked to MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show.”
Maddow played the recording of the House leadership phone call from January 10th on Thursday night’s episode.
NEWS: @maddow has audio of Kevin McCarthy saying privately after Jan. 6 that he expects impeachment to pass and was considering asking Donald Trump to resign.
Here’s the tape 👇 pic.twitter.com/hXmz2X9RqA
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) April 22, 2022
During the call, Rep. Liz Cheney asked Rep. McCarthy if there was a possibility of Trump resigning, or if he believed that could be a possibility.
“Is there any chance? Are you hearing that he might resign? Is there any reason to think that might happen?” Cheney asked.
“My gut tells me no,” McCarthy replied. “I’m seriously thinking of having that conversation with him tonight…Um, from what I know of him, I mean you guys all know him too, do you think he’d ever back away? But what I think I’m going to do, is I’m going to call him.”
McCarthy said that he did believe that an impeachment would pass.
“What he did is unacceptable. Nobody can defend that and nobody should defend it,” McCarthy said. “I think this will pass, and it would be my recommendation you should resign.”
During another portion of the call, which audio has not yet leaked of, McCarthy reportedly said that he believes Twitter and Facebook should ban politicians from his own party who supported Trump’s claim that the election was rigged.
“We can’t put up with that,” he said. “Can’t they take their Twitter accounts away, too?”
Jonathan Martin says they have McCarthy on tape hoping Twitter would suspend some of his own members pic.twitter.com/vFHweS2ZjN
— MAYRA Feeley (@mayra_feeley) April 22, 2022
The New York Times had reported on the call earlier in the day, without the recording, prompting McCarthy to issue a statement denying that the call ever took place.
”The New York Times’ reporting on me is totally false and wrong,” McCarthy said in a statement posted to Twitter on Thursday. “It comes as no surprise that the corporate media is obsessed with doing everything it can to further a liberal agenda. This promotional book tour is no different. If the reporters were interested in truth why would they ask for comment after the book was printed?”
