- House minority leader Kevin McCarthy had a tense phone call with President Trump on Monday, in which he told the president that the election was “over.”
- After Trump said the Capitol insurrection was the work of the antifa, McCarthy said, “It’s MAGA. I know, I was there,” according to Axios.
- McCarthy, a longtime supporter of Trump, went on to vote against electoral certification in Arizona after the Capitol siege.
- The California representative is now arguing against impeachment, saying “it would only divide the country more”.
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House minority leader Kevin McCarthy had a difficult phone call with President Trump on Monday, allegedly telling the president that his battle to overthrow the 2020 presidential election was “over”.
McCarthy reportedly became exasperated with the president after he continued to complain about electoral fraud.
“Stop it. It’s over. The election is over,” said the California congressman, an anonymous White House official told Axios.
In a 30-minute call that was described as sometimes “tense” by participants, McCarthy criticized the president for blaming “antifa” for the January 6 Capitol insurrection. The FBI classified antifa as an ideology, not an organization.
“It’s not antifa, it’s MAGA. I know. I was there,” McCarthy told Trump.
Trump and his followers, including Rep. Matt Gaetz, have argued without foundation that the Capitol violation was led by Antifa members posing as Trump supporters.
On Thursday, just hours after the Capitol uprising was suppressed, Gaetz told his fellow representatives “some of the people who invaded the Capitol today were not Trump supporters. They were disguising themselves as Trump supporters and, in fact, were members of the violent anti-terrorist group. “
Rep. Paul Gosar made similar comments about Twitter, noting that the insurrection had “all the marks of an antifa provocation”, although the FBI found “no indication” that the antifa members were in any way involved in the violent Capitol revolt.
In a letter sent to his fellow Republican representatives on Friday, McCarthy said there was “indisputably” no evidence of antifa’s involvement and expressed frustration with how the crisis was handled.
“Having spoken to so many of you, I know that we are all taking time to process the events of that day. Know that I share your anger and your pain,” he wrote.
He stopped, however, from encouraging Trump’s impeachment, noting on Twitter that “the impeachment of the president is only 12 days away to further divide our country”.
McCarthy has been a staunch supporter of President Trump and has repeatedly and baselessly claimed that Trump had won the presidential election.
On January 3, McCarthy told The Hill that he supported the challenges to Biden’s election.
“I think it is right that we have a debate,” he said. “I mean, you see now that the senators are going to oppose, the House is going to oppose – how else would we have a way to change electoral problems?”
After the January 6 uprising, McCarthy, along with other members of the Republican Party House, voted in favor of decertifying the results of the Arizona election, a measure that was not passed.