House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy blamed President Trump for inciting grassroots supporters to lay siege to the United States Capitol and acknowledged President-elect Joe Biden will be inaugurated Jan. 20 because “he won the election.”
The California Republican spoke on the House floor to oppose the single article of impeachment against Trump, on track to pass Wednesday afternoon with bipartisan support.
But in doing so, McCarthy broke with the outgoing president, with whom he has been closely aligned, and issued a stinging rebuke. Trump, the top House Republican said, deserves censure for his role in the sacking of the Capitol, and that contrary to his claims, the 2020 election was not stolen.
“The President bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob rioters. He should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding,” McCarthy said. “And the president’s immediate action also deserves congressional action — which is why I think a fact-finding commission and a censure resolution would be prudent.”
“What we saw last week was not the American way,” the minority leader continued. “Neither is the continued rhetoric that Joe Biden is not the legitimate president. Let’s be clear, Joe Biden will be sworn in as the President of the United States in one week because he won the election.”
In opposing Trump’s impeachment, McCarthy, 55, took the same position as the majority of House Republicans he leads. Most of them, like the minority leader, have been strong Trump supporters through myriad scandals. These Republicans took to the House floor to decry the unprecedented second impeachment of the 45th president, labeling the action unfair and politically motivated by the Democrats. McCarthy, with his sharp criticism of Trump, stood apart.
Significantly, the House minority leader did not lean on Republican members to oppose impeachment. At least a half-dozen of them, including Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the No. 3-ranking House Republican, said they would vote to impeach the president over his actions on Jan. 6. But McCarthy said he could not back the article of impeachment, arguing that attempting to remove the president from office at the 11th hour of his term was counterproductive.
“A vote to impeach will further divide the nation. A vote to impeach will further fan the flames of partisan division,” McCarthy said. “Most Americans want neither inaction nor retribution. They want durable, bipartisan justice. That path is still available, but it is not the path we are on today.”
Trump is under fire for claiming for months that the Nov. 3 election was stolen.
Speaking to a massive rally of his supporters last Wednesday that gathered to protest Biden’s victory as illegitimate, Trump urged them to march on Capitol Hill to demand that Congress vote to object to the certification of Biden’s Electoral College victory. That protest turned into a violent mob that overran police and stormed the Capitol, sending members of Congress fleeing for their lives. Initially, Trump refused to urge the rioters to disperse, although he eventually called for peace.
Meanwhile, the president is denying responsibility for violence that left five people dead and the Capitol desecrated. His Republican allies in the House, a majority of whom voted to object to Biden’s Electoral College victory even after they were chased from the House chamber, are sticking with him.
“The president didn’t incite a riot; the president didn’t lead an insurrection,” Rep. Jodey Arrington of Texas said in remarks on the House floor urging that impeachment be defeated. “The criminals that stormed the Capitol that day acted on their own volition.”
