McCarthy said the Wyoming Republican would have some explanations to give House Republicans for their decision to join nine Republican Party members in voting for Trump’s impeachment for inciting a deadly US Capitol insurgency earlier this month.
“She may have a different opinion, but the only thing if we are going to lead within the conference, we must work together on this as an entire conference, because we are representatives of that conference,” said McCarthy. “I think she has a lot of questions to answer at the conference.”
McCarthy suggested that the best forum for this would be at a closed conference.
“Let people ask their questions, let them express why they did what they did, where did they come from? And we’re just going to have this discussion, ”he said.
McCarthy’s comments come as calls on the House Republican bench grow to remove Cheney from his leadership post.
Members of Trump’s allied Freedom Caucus began circulating a petition last week among Republican Party members that would force a meeting to debate a resolution calling for his resignation.
Cheney, who drew a major opponent on Wednesday after his vote, said he has no intention of resigning.
“I’m not going anywhere. This is a vote of conscience,” Cheney said last week. “It is a vote in which there are different points of view at our conference. But our nation is facing an unprecedented constitutional crisis since the civil war.”
McCarthy received criticism on Thursday for saying that Trump did not incite the Capitol rebellion, apparently contradicting his earlier comments made on the House floor this month that Trump had some responsibility for the attack.
When pressed by Van Susteren, McCarthy insisted that “everyone” – including Trump – was responsible for the Capitol disturbances, a comment that drew heated reactions on social media.
McCarthy said he was also left out by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s announcement to file impeachment articles against President Joe Biden on Thursday.
Greene said “to the public before you tell me,” McCarthy said of the Republican of Georgia’s effort to get Biden out of office, which is sure to fail.
McCarthy supported Greene, a staunch Trump supporter who embraced parts of the QAnon conspiracy theory, in his right to submit the articles, but disagreed with the decision.
“I think it is better, especially with what we went through with the Democrats, we are not going to go down to their level, we are going to believe in the rule of law,” said McCarthy. “I just don’t think the time and the case are right at this moment, at this moment.”