A former staffer to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has told CNN that his then-boss didn’t bother to check in on him in the aftermath of the deadly 6 January Capitol riot.
Ryan O’Toole, who now works for Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney, said that members of Congress were “fearful for their lives” after the Capitol was breached.
Mr O’Toole painted a chaotic picture of life inside the building at the time of the insurrection, where he also describes some members – such as Alabama’s Mo Brooks – “cheering on” the rioters.
Appearing on Jake Tapper’s CNN show, The Lead , the topic of conversation largely revolved around 6 January, 2021 – and Mr O’Toole’s memories of the day, exactly one year on.
“I didn’t get a chance to have any sort of debriefing. My understanding is none of Rep McCarthy’s staff were able to connect with him regarding the day’s events or how to respond to them,” he claimed on Thursday night.
“I’d be remiss if I didn’t recount, as we were walking back from that secure room that we’d been evacuated to, to complete the day’s business on the House floor, Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi and Leader [Steny] Hoyer stopped our team, our floor team, to thank us for the job that we had done assisting members and continuing the process.
“I think that demonstrates the colour of the leadership that day demanded,” Mr O’Toole added.
When pressed for a comment by Business Insider, a current staffer from Rep McCarthy’s office pointed to a tweeted statement that read: “Throughout the day McCarthy was in frequent contact [with] members of our staff.”
According to Mr O’Toole, his former employer has pivoted politically to appease the hard-liners and Trump loyalists within the GOP since the events of last January. He adds that House members such as Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene – who was banned from Twitter earlier this week – are two examples of fringe politicians in DC that Rep McCarthy is beholden to.
“When Marjorie Taylor Greene or Matt Gaetz puts their thumb on the scale, that’s what he responds to, and that drives the House Republican Conference into the arms of somebody like Donald Trump,” Mr O’Toole concluded.
“And so the leadership that enables that behavior is continuing today, as we’ve seen.”
