Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren is criticizing Rep. Kevin McCarthy as a “liar and traitor” for recordings showing the House Republican leader, despite his denials, holding then-President Trump responsible for the Capitol riots and suggesting that Trump should resign.
It’s unusually strong language to use against the House Republican leader, who is in line to become Speaker of the House, second in line for the presidency, if Republicans win control of the House in the November election.
But Warren’s statement reflects a groundswell of Democratic criticism of McCarthy. They point to his taped remarks in January 2021 as evidence that Republican lawmakers at the highest levels privately acknowledge Trump’s role in the insurrection on Capitol Hill but continue to defend him in public.
McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) denied a New York Times report last week that detailed phone conversations with House Republican leaders shortly after the riot in which he thought Trump should resign. He called it “totally false.” But in audio first published Thursday by the newspaper and broadcast on Rachel Maddow’s MSNBC show, McCarthy is heard discussing the possibility of urging Trump to leave office amid the Democratic campaign to impeach him.
Asked about his reaction Sunday, Warren (D-Mass.) called the circumstances “outrageous.”
“Kevin McCarthy is a liar and a traitor,” he told CNN’s “State of the Union” program.
“That’s really the disease that permeates the Republican leadership right now, that they say one thing to the American public and another in private,” Warren said. “They understand that what happened is wrong, an attempt to overthrow our government, and that Republicans instead want to keep trying to figure out how to make the 2020 election different instead of spending their energy on how we move forward.” to build an economy, to make this country work better for the people who sent us to Washington.”
“Shame on you Kevin McCarthy,” he said.
There was no immediate response Sunday from McCarthy’s office to a request for comment.
The crowd that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, marched there from a rally near the White House where Trump had implored them to fight to overturn Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election. falsely saying they stole the election. Trump has denied responsibility for the violence.
McCarthy has been a person of interest to the House committee investigating the Capitol assault. The committee requested an interview with McCarthy in mid-January, seeking information about his communications with Trump and White House staff in the week after the violence, including a conversation with Trump that was reportedly heated.
McCarthy released a statement at the time saying he would refuse to cooperate because he believed the investigation was not legitimate and accused the panel of “abuse of power.”
Trump and McCarthy had a strained relationship after the attack on Capitol Hill, but they made amends after the Republican leader flew to the former president’s vacation resort in Florida.
His alliance renewed, McCarthy now trusts Trump to help Republicans win a majority in the House of Representatives in this November’s midterm elections.
Reference-www.latimes.com