House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday blasted House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy as inconsistent after recently leaked audio in the days following the Jan. 6 Capitol riot showed the California Republican suggested that some GOP lawmakers were inciting violence.
“It was interesting to me that the leader talked about the concern that he had, that he was concerned about his members causing danger here, and at the same time, complaining that we had magnetometers here to keep guns off the floor of the House,” the California Democrat said. “It just seemed inconsistent to me.”
“Especially now that one of his members was seen taking a gun into an airport,” Pelosi added in reference to officials saying a loaded gun was found in a carry-on bag belonging to Rep. Madison Cawthorn at Charlotte Douglas International Airport this week. The incident marked the second time Cawthorn was caught with a gun at airport security, following an incident last year in Asheville, North Carolina.
Magnetometers were installed near the entrance to the House floor as a safety measure following the riot. All entrants, including members, are required to use them to enter the chamber. Some Republicans, including McCarthy, have objected to their use, and he is expected to remove them should he become speaker after November’s elections.
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In the audio of a phone call days after the riot recently published by the New York Times, McCarthy could be heard saying the country was “too crazy” for some of the remarks made by his more controversial members, and he expressed concern that those comments could incite violence.
“He’s putting people in jeopardy,” McCarthy said of comments made by Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz. “And he doesn’t need to be doing this. We saw what people would do in the Capitol, you know, and these people came prepared with rope, with everything else.”
Elsewhere in the audio, McCarthy said members shouldn’t make “inflammatory” comments, which he called “s***.”
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Pelosi later grew testy with reporters asking about Cawthorn and McCarthy, attempting to pivot discussion to Democratic legislative priorities, including a bill targeting what Pelosi this week described as profiteering by oil companies.
