House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy risks the wrath of Donald Trump that would dash his hopes of becoming speaker next year after an audio tape exposed he told colleagues he’d urge the then-president to resign over the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.
In the Jan. 10 audio, posted late Thursday by the New York Times and aired on Rachel Maddow’s MSNBC show, McCarthy can be heard telling fellow Republicans during a leadership call that he planned to discuss with Trump the Democratic effort to impeach and remove him from office.
“The only discussion I would have with him is that I think this will pass, and it would be my recommendation you should resign,” McCarthy says in the recording, which was first reported by the New York Times and has not been independently verified by Bloomberg.
McCarthy — who ultimately voted against Trump’s impeachment from office — tweeted a denial of the New York Times story posted earlier in the day before the audio was broadcast. He called the report “totally false and wrong.”
His office didn’t immediately respond on Friday to a request for comment outside of normal business hours.
The tape could have ramifications for McCarthy’s hold on House GOP leadership and aspirations to become speaker if Republicans win a House majority in the November midterm elections.
McCarthy’s ascension to speaker already was no sure thing: A major question is whether Trump would back him.
McCarthy made a bid for the speakership in 2015, when John Boehner stepped down from the role, and he was next in line. But Paul Ryan was selected instead.
McCarthy has publicly treaded lightly on matters that could draw Trump’s scrutiny, since he initially issued a rebuke of Trump on Jan. 6, declaring the former president bore some “responsibility” for the mob attack on the Capitol.
He has refused to cooperate with the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection, denying requests for an interview. He also has met with Trump since then.
