Thompson: 6 January panel to pursue McCarthy again
Kevin McCarthy is likely to face new pressure this week to appear before the bipartisan panel investigating the 6 January insurrection, its chairman has said, as the House minority leader faces angry Republican colleagues this morning.
The embattled GOP chief was caught in a lie over the 6 January insurrection by the New York Times, which released audio clips capturing the purported Donald Trump ally saying he would call for Trump’s resignation, which he denied.
Possibly more damaging for McCarthy’s hopes of one day becoming House speaker is the Times’ latest release, in which he suggests far-right Republican lawmakers could incite violence against colleagues.
In a recording made on 10 January last year, four days after Trump supporters rioted at the Capitol building and amid the then-president’s efforts to overturn his election defeat by Joe Biden, McCarthy tells fellow Republican leaders that extremist politicians are “putting people in jeopardy” with incendiary statements and tweets.
Vocal Trump acolytes Matt Gaetz of Florida and Mo Brooks of Alabama are identified by McCarthy as particularly likely to endanger other lawmakers’ security.
Gaetz, predictably, reacted with fury, exposing Republican fissures in a tweet attacking both McCarthy and minority whip Steve Scalise:
McCarthy faces the House GOP caucus later this morning, with the knowledge that the 6 January panel is pressing again to get him to testify.
According to the Associated Press, the panel expects to decide this week about issuing a second request to McCarthy, who has declined to voluntarily appear, and is also looking at summoning a widening group of House Republicans for interviews.
The committee is looking into the riot and Trump’s attempts to cling on to power. Its chair, the Mississippi Democrat Bennie Thompson, says the panel will hold public meetings in June, and expects to release a report in the early fall.
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Good morning, and welcome to the midweek edition of our US politics blog.
It’s going to be an uncomfortable morning for the House minority leader Kevin McCarthy, who faces his Republican caucus for the first time since he was caught in a lie by the New York Times over the 6 January insurrection.
Audio clips released by the newspaper captured the purported Donald Trump ally saying he would call for Trump’s resignation, which he denied.
But possibly more damaging for McCarthy’s hopes of one day becoming House speaker is the Times’ latest release, in which he suggests far-right Republican lawmakers could incite violence against colleagues.
McCarthy faces the House GOP caucus at 10am.
Here’s what else were watching today:
- Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious diseases expert, has declared the Covid-19 pandemic effectively over in the US, according to the Washington Post. Curiously, however, he’s skipping the White House correspondents’ dinner this weekend for fear of catching it.
- Homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas will appear before both House and Senate committees today trying to explain how the Biden administration intends to fix the pickle it has got itself into over ending the Trump-era Title 42 immigration policy.
- Joe Biden, and Bill and Hillary Clinton, will attend the funeral in Washington DC for Madeleine Albright, the former secretary of state who died last month.
- The House panel investigating the 6 January insurrection will hold public meetings in June, and expects to release a report in the early fall, its chair Bennie Thompson has said.
