Kevin McCarthy said he supports Liz Cheney, but has ‘concerns’

Kevin McCarthy said he supports Liz Cheney, but has ‘concerns’

by

“Look, I support her, but I also have concerns,” he told Greta Van Susteren of Gray TV, according to a transcript of an interview that airs on Sunday. “She took the number 3 position at the conference, she never told me ahead of time. One thing about leadership, if we are going to work together, we must understand. We know this will become a difficulty. She may have a different opinion, but one thing , if we are going to lead the conference, we should work together on this as a whole conference, because we are representatives of that conference. So I support it, but I think it has a lot of questions to answer at the conference. “

His comments come as a group of conservative efforts by the House to remove Cheney from the Republican Party leadership is seen as a long shot by Republican Party advisers who watch the process. While the Republican conference is expected to hold a special meeting on the subject, actually removing Cheney as chairman of the conference is much more difficult. The conference would have to vote on a resolution asking it to resign and a majority would have to support it, something that advisers do not believe is possible now.

Aides previously told CNN that McCarthy is focused on repressing intra-party struggles while the Republican Party recalibrated and focused on regaining the House in 2022. A former Republican Party official told CNN that toppling Cheney would be a major setback for the party .

McCarthy told Van Susteren that he believes holding the special meeting “will help bring people together again”.

“Look, everyone can vote for their district or whatever they think is most important. Leadership is a little different job, especially when you’re his communication arm and number three. I think it’s better within the Republican Party, which we have many different voices, “he said. “I think there are a lot of questions that need to be answered and we have to be able to do that at a family gathering to help bring people together again.”

He also said that “everyone in this country has some responsibility” for the US Capitol insurrection on January 6.

“I also think that everyone in this country has some responsibility. Think about four years ago, after President Trump was installed. What happened the next day? The title was to resist people walking on the streets, (Rep.) Maxine Waters saying to confront people, confront them in restaurants. We had poor people, (Rep.) Steve Scalise was shot, “he said, referring to the 2017 shot of Scalise and four others in a baseball training session in the Republican Congress.

He continued: “What do we write on our social networks? What do we say to each other? How do we disagree and still not be pleasant even when it comes to opinion?”

When asked about the change in tone about Trump’s responsibility for the attack, he said, “No, I haven’t changed that.”

On Thursday, McCarthy broke with Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell about Trump’s role in the insurrection, saying, “I don’t believe he provoked you if you heard what he said at the rally.” These comments were made after he said earlier this month: “The president is responsible for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by crowd rebels.”

CNN’s Lauren Fox and Veronica Stracqualursi contributed to this report.

.Source