Fox News host Tucker Carlson warned Republicans against supporting California Rep. Kevin McCarthy for House speaker if the GOP wins control of the lower chamber this fall.
The top-rated cable news personality reacted Tuesday to a taped conversation McCarthy, a Republican who is currently House minority leader, had with colleagues after the Capitol riot in which he expressed his desire for social media companies to ban certain members of his caucus after former President Donald Trump’s account was permanently suspended.
“Unless conservatives get their act together right away, Kevin McCarthy, or one of his highly liberal allies, like Elise Stefanik, is very likely to be speaker of the House in January. That would mean we will have a Republican Congress led by a puppet of the Democratic Party,” Carlson said on his show. Stefanik hails from New York and is the third-ranking member of the House GOP.
In focus is a GOP leadership call Jan. 10 in which McCarthy fretted over certain members of the Republican Party inciting more violence after the Capitol riot. Among those lawmakers being discussed were Reps. Matt Gaetz of Florida, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Paul Gosar of Arizona, Barry Moore of Alabama, and Lauren Boebert of Colorado.
TUCKER CARLSON REPORTS SPYING ALLEGATIONS IN CONGRESS
Tucker Carlson turns on Kevin McCarthy pic.twitter.com/Io7K39mbju
— Shane Goldmacher (@ShaneGoldmacher) April 27, 2022
“Can’t they take their Twitter accounts away, too?” McCarthy asked, according to the New York Times. The audio was later played on MSNBC.
McCarthy: Can’t they take their Twitter accounts away too? pic.twitter.com/DeSXaoITzh
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 27, 2022
“Those are the tape-recorded words of congressman Kevin McCarthy, a man who, in private, turns out sounds like an MSNBC contributor,” Carlson remarked.
The audio was collected for the forthcoming book This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden and the Battle for America’s Future, which is set to release May 3. The authors, New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns, have also detailed conversations with GOP leadership in which McCarthy said he would tell Trump to resign days after the riot.
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McCarthy denied the report as written, calling it “totally false and wrong,” but then, audio was released on MSNBC in which he was heard telling GOP colleagues Jan. 10 that he would urge Trump to resign. He denied Friday that he ever asked Trump to resign, however. He spoke with the former president after the audio was released, and Trump then announced that their relationship remains intact.
