The House select committee formed to investigate the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol wants to hear from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
Chairman Bennie Thompson sent a letter to the top Republican on Wednesday requesting that he voluntarily appear before the committee. Topics the committee wants to probe with McCarthy include his communication with former President Donald Trump on the day of the riot, his communications with White House chief of staff Mark Meadows in the days before Jan. 6, and why he continued his objections to Electoral College results after the riot.
McCarthy has said that he spoke to Trump as the riot unfolded, and reporting from around that time says they got into a “screaming match.” He asked Trump to call off the rioters, and Trump reportedly responded that the rioters cared more about the 2020 election results than McCarthy did.
“He’s made significant phone statements about what occurred on January 6, and we’d like to hear from him,” Thompson told reporters on Wednesday.
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The committee also wants to know about McCarthy’s communications with Trump’s legal team and Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, as well as his communications with Trump in the weeks after the attack.
Thompson told reporters that to his knowledge, the committee’s information on file mostly amounts to McCarthy’s public statements and does does not include text messages or bank records. Whether it will ask McCarthy to turn over any documents is to be determined, Thompson said.
McCarthy is the third House Republican that the committee has requested to cooperate voluntarily with its inquiry. Pennsylvania Rep. Scott Perry and Jordan responded, indicating that they would not voluntarily cooperate with the investigation.
That has led the committee to consider whether it has the authority to take the unprecedented step of subpoenaing members of Congress, and if so, whether the committee will actually issue the subpoenas.
Asked if McCarthy could be subpoenaed if he refuses to appear voluntarily, Thompson told reporters, “We’ll consider it.”
Among the statements that the committee wants to ask McCarthy about is one he made on the House floor on Jan. 13, 2021: “The President bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack.”
“We think he’ll voluntarily come forward and tell us why he made that statement and some others,” Thompson said.
In the year since the riot, though, McCarthy has backed away from placing blame on Trump. The February after the riot, McCarthy met with Trump in Florida to discuss fundraising for 2022 House campaigns.
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McCarthy said in May 2021 that he would testify to a Jan. 6 panel about his phone conversation about Trump on Jan. 6, but at the time, Congress was considering a bipartisan, bicameral commission rather than a Democratic-controlled select committee.
A spokesman for McCarthy did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
