WASHINGTON — Most House Republicans rallied around Kevin McCarthy during their first meeting since recordings surfaced of the GOP leader considering telling former President Donald Trump to resign after the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, but the support wasn’t unanimous even after Trump’s blessing.
One dissenting Republican — Matt Gaetz of Florida — seized on the moment to underscore his own commitment to Trump, and raise campaign cash.
“Is THIS the kind of leadership you want to lead the House of Representatives?” Gaetz’s campaign wrote in a Wednesday email to supporters, singling out McCarthy and his No. 2, Steve Scalise.
“Two-faced Swamp politicians who smear Trump behind the scenes and defend someone who targets MAGA in unselect committees with Nancy Pelosi?”
Trump, however, had days ago given McCarthy a pass on the leaked tape, leading most Republicans to shrug off the audio, recorded in the days after a mob of Trump supporters, stoked by the former president’s unfounded claims of election fraud in the presidential election, stormed the Capitol.
“We’re trying to fix the problems that happen in America,” Georgia Representative Barry Loudermilk said after the meeting. “Nobody’s concerned about this.”
At the end of the meeting, McCarthy received a standing ovation from most of the Republicans in the room. But he was confronted by a few members over one of the leaked recordings, in which he named several far-right Republicans in Congress as potentially inciting violence against their colleagues.
The New York Times reported on Tuesday that during the January 10, 2021, private call he urged others party leaders to monitor the public statements of certain lawmakers — including Gaetz and Mo Brooks of Alabama.
Brooks had addressed a rally that preceded the Capitol riot and Gaetz had attacked Republicans who had criticized Trump for his role in inflaming the mob.
Gaetz was one of the few Republicans who criticized McCarthy after the New York Times released the audio recordings. In a tweet on Tuesday he called McCarthy and Scalise “weak men, not leaders.”
At the meeting, Gaetz blasted McCarthy and Scalise, at one point demanding an apology for remarks about him on the audio, according to four other Republicans in the room.
Scalise told Republicans that their comments were being taken out of context, and that they were discussing the potential for violence stemming from incendiary comments because some members had already gotten death threats, according to those in the room.
At one point during the discussion, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who McCarthy has backed despite her past controversial statements, called for party unity, multiple lawmakers said. Notably, Greene has been a stalwart ally of Gaetz, who specifically called her out as one of the “fighters” for Trump in his campaign email.
‘Jan. 6 is not an issue’
Since the audio recordings were released, the chair of the special House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection, Democratic Representative Bennie Thompson, said McCarthy will be asked to reconsider his refusal to be interviewed by the panel. The committee asked McCarthy in January to answer questions about his communications with Trump and others before and after the riot.
Representative Roger Williams of Texas said Republicans needed to stay focused on the issues that voters are concerned about so that the GOP can retake control of the House after the midterm election.
“Jan. 6 is not an issue. It’s made up,” Williams said. There is “no question” that McCarthy would become House speaker if Republicans prevail in November.
