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- New audio confirms that Rep. Kevin McCarthy told Republicans he planned to tell Trump to resign.
- The audio released by New York Times reporters on MSNBC comes after McCarthy denied making such comments.
- “I think this will pass and it would be my recommendation you should resign,” McCarthy said on the call.
New audio released by New York Times reporters on MSNBC confirms that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told some of his fellow Republican lawmakers that he planned to urge former President Donald Trump to resign following the January 6 Capitol riot.
McCarthy and his office denied making the comments several times, both in response to multiple media outlets and in a social media statement Thursday in which he called the Times’ initial reporting of the quote “totally false and wrong.”
New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns shared the bombshell recording on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” on Thursday evening, following The New York Times publication of a report detailing GOP leaders’ mounting frustration with Trump after the insurrection.
The audio captured part of a January 10, 2021, GOP leadership call during which McCarthy said the party should take advantage of House Democrats’ efforts to impeach Trump for a second time, according to reporting from Burns’ and Martin’s forthcoming book, “This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden and the Battle for America’s Future.”
In the recording, Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming can be heard asking McCarthy if he thinks Trump might resign.
“My gut tells me no. I’m seriously thinking of having that conversation with him tonight,” McCarthy said. “From what I know of him, I mean you guys know him, too, do you think he’d ever back away?”
McCarthy goes on, telling his colleagues that he plans to call Trump.
“This is what I think: I think we know it’ll pass the House,” McCarthy said of the impeachment resolution. “I think there’s a chance it will pass the Senate even when he’s gone.”
The lawmaker then lays out how he would present the suggestion to Trump.
“‘I think this will pass and it would be my recommendation you should resign,'” McCarthy said he would tell Trump on the call.
—Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) April 22, 2022
A spokesperson for McCarthy did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
McCarthy never had the resignation conversation with Trump, according to The Times, after other Republican lawmakers warned him of probable backlash from Trump supporters.
Ten House Republicans ultimately voted to impeach Trump following the Capitol attack. McCarthy was not one of them. Trump was later acquitted in the Senate.
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