Trump and McCarthy got into profanity-laced screaming match during Capitol riots: report
Trump allegedly said that the rioters cared more about the election results than McCarthy
Donald Trump and Rep. Kevin McCarthy reportedly got into a screaming match during the U.S. Capitol riots as the former president claimed the protesters cared more about the election results.
CNN reported on Friday that then-President Trump and McCarthy, the Republican minority leader in the U.S. House, were involved in a profanity-laced screaming match during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. The top Republican in Congress called Trump during the mob attack and pleaded with him to call off his supporters who breached the Capitol in order to stop the Electoral College certification of President Joe Biden.
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“Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are,” Trump said, according to lawmakers.
“Who the f–k do you think you are talking to?” McCarthy allegedly responded.
McCarthy briefed the officials on what took place on the heated phone call. At one point, the House Minority Leader was furious that rioters were breaking into his office.
The details of the call were further confirmation to some GOP lawmakers that Trump did not care about their well-being and it is why he didn’t offer any help. Trump even attacked former Vice President Mike Pence as rioters were in search of him and some shouted, “Hang Mike Pence.”
An anonymous leader told CNN that Trump was on the side of the rioters who wanted to harm them.
“He is not a blameless observer, he was rooting for them,” the Republican Congress member said. “On January 13, Kevin McCarthy said on the floor of the House that the president bears responsibility and he does.”
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Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, a Washington Republican, was briefed on the conversation between McCarthy and Trump and spoke of her anger on the record.
“You have to look at what he did during the insurrection to confirm where his mind was at,” Beutler told CNN. “That line right there demonstrates to me that either he didn’t care, which is impeachable, because you cannot allow an attack on your soil, or he wanted it to happen and was OK with it, which makes me so angry.”
“We should never stand for that, for any reason, under any party flag,” she added. “I’m trying really hard not to say the F-word.”
Despite McCarthy’s anger during the phone call and assigning him blame for the attack, he still voted against impeaching Trump for a second time for inciting the insurrection. He publicly backtracked from his criticisms and flew down to Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Florida resort on Jan. 28.
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