House Republicans appear to be in no rush to consider dumping House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy over his double-speak reaction to the Jan. 6 riots and tapped comments that former President Donald Trump should “resign” over the affair.
According to multiple insiders, Republicans are first looking to see what Trump says (or doesn’t) on the growing scandal and then hope to kick questions about leadership toward a time after the fall elections so it doesn’t distract from the goal of taking back control of the House.
“Right now, they are still on Easter break, so there isn’t a rush to judgment,” said one leadership adviser. “And everyone is looking to Trump, the leader of the party, and what he will do,” added the adviser.
At issue is a new book by New York Times writers saying that McCarthy, during a call with House members on Jan. 10, 2021, suggested that Trump should resign if he was headed to a second impeachment. His office denied the claim but was caught in a lie when tapes held by the book authors were played on MSNBC.
Another leadership team adviser said that while it sounds scandalous now over a year after the riots, many House Republicans and Trump insiders were angry on Jan. 6, 2021, and have since tempered as polling shows that the GOP base wasn’t riled up by the riot.
“At the time, McCarthy and a lot of other people said the riots were f***** up and said some tough things. But then, they saw the reaction and backed off. I think Trump will let McCarthy off like he has with a lot of his friends,” said the adviser.
But, he added, “with Trump, you never know.”
Importantly, Trump and McCarthy talked Thursday, and the former president isn’t upset in part because McCarthy never pushed for Trump’s resignation, fought impeachment, and subsequently moved to punish Republicans who did vote to impeach.
“It appears that Trump doesn’t care and that McCarthy changing his tune showed he capitulated to him,” said a longtime GOP insider.
Since Trump left office, McCarthy has stayed loyal to the former president and is considered a close ally and adviser himself as the former president eyes another run for office. Trump is also known to hate the press, and the media are already cheering him on to dump McCarthy’s friendship over the resignation call.
Should Trump give McCarthy a pass, “McCarthy will survive,” said a Republican lobbyist close to House GOP leaders.
Helping McCarthy’s cause is the expectation that the GOP will win control of the House and the party’s goal of keeping the focus on Election Day and not internal politics.
Also working for McCarthy, insiders said, is that those on the leadership team, notably No. 2 Rep. Steve Scalise, are not eager to rock the boat because they may get tossed in the storm.
“Scalise wouldn’t challenge McCarthy unless it was a virtual guarantee he’d get the job,” said one ally. “He’s already set to be the House majority leader in a Republican House and McCarthy’s heir apparent,” said the ally, adding, “Why risk it?”
