Thomas Mccarthy Moving Us on Again
Kevin McCarthy Refuses Interview Request From January. 6 Committee
The panel said it was interested in conversations the top House Republican had with President Donald J. Trump on the day of the riot and afterward.
WASHINGTON — The Firm select committee scrutinizing the January. 6 attack on the Capitol on Midweek formally requested an interview with Representative Kevin McCarthy, taking the unusual step of calling the minority leader, who was in close contact with erstwhile President Donald J. Trump before, during and after the violence and has fought to close down whatsoever investigation of the events.
Mr. McCarthy quickly announced that he would refuse to cooperate, but the request sent a clear message that the commission'south investigators are willing to pursue the highest-ranking figures on Capitol Loma for information about Mr. Trump's mind-set every bit the violence unfolded. A federal judge has suggested the one-time president's attitude volition be pivotal to determining whether Mr. Trump tin can face up any liability for the day'south mayhem.
It set up a politically charged showdown betwixt House Democrats investigating the assault and Mr. McCarthy, the California Republican who is on runway to become the speaker of the Firm if Republicans retake the bedroom in November. And it suggested that investigators believe that Mr. McCarthy, who has acknowledged that he spoke past phone with Mr. Trump while rioters stormed the Capitol, may likewise have been involved in conversations subsequently almost the president's culpability in the attack and what should exist done to address it.
In a letter on Wednesday, Representative Bennie Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi and the chairman of the committee, said the console had obtained "contemporaneous text messages from multiple witnesses" that refer to White House staff members expressing "pregnant concerns" about Mr. Trump'south "country of heed and his ongoing conduct" in the days later on January. 6.
"It appears that you may likewise accept discussed with President Trump the potential he would face up a censure resolution, impeachment or removal under the 25th Subpoena," Mr. Thompson wrote to Mr. McCarthy, referring to the part of the Constitution that allows for a president to be removed if he is determined to exist unable to practise his job. "It likewise appears that you may accept identified other possible options, including President Trump's immediate resignation from office."
Mr. McCarthy released a argument Wednesday evening, saying he was refusing a coming together and condemning the investigation as "illegitimate." He led his party'south opposition to the germination of a bipartisan console as initially conceived to investigate the riot, opposed the cosmos of the current commission and has attacked the panel's work for weeks.
"The commission'south only objective is to attempt to damage its political opponents," he said, adding: "It is with neither regret nor satisfaction that I have ended to not participate with this select commission'due south abuse of power that stains this institution today and will impairment information technology going forwards."
His refusal to see with the commission raised the question of whether the panel would issue a subpoena to endeavor to strength him to testify, or hold him in contempt of Congress if he refused to comply. Those moves would represent major escalations in the battle over the investigation, which most Republicans have characterized as a partisan do intended to tarnish Mr. Trump and their party.
The commission proposed meeting with Mr. McCarthy on February. iii or four. He is the highest-ranking lawmaker the console has pursued in its inquiry.
In September, the committee included Mr. McCarthy on a list of hundreds of people whose records it instructed social media and telecommunications companies to preserve for possible utilize in the inquiry, which was reported earlier by CNN and confirmed by The New York Times. Mr. McCarthy's spokesman, Mark Bednar, criticized the panel at the time as "politically motivated" and categorized its request as "an disciplinarian, unconstitutional attempt to rifle through individuals' call logs."
In the days after the mob attack, Mr. McCarthy struck a different tone. He initially condemned the violence and said Mr. Trump "bears responsibleness" for the violence.
"What nosotros saw last week was not the American way," Mr. McCarthy said on the floor of the Firm. "Neither is the continued rhetoric that Joe Biden is not the legitimate president."
Simply Mr. McCarthy eventually inverse his stance, re-embracing Mr. Trump — who remains popular amidst the Republican base — and visiting him at his Mar-a-Lago social club in Palm Beach, Fla., near the end of January.
"Your public statements regarding Jan. 6 take inverse markedly since you met with Trump," Mr. Thompson wrote in his letter. "At that meeting, or at any other time, did President Trump or his representatives discuss or suggest what you should say publicly?"
In a recent interview, Representative Liz Cheney, Republican of Wyoming and the vice chairwoman of the commission, pointed to the Mar-a-Lago meeting as a turning point for Mr. McCarthy. He would subsequently atomic number 82 his political party's effort to oust her from her leadership mail service for continuing to call out Mr. Trump, his election lies and the complicity of many Republicans in spreading them. And after initially proverb he would back a bipartisan inquiry into the Jan. 6 attack, he reversed course and argued vociferously against any investigation by Congress.
"Looking back, the moment that Leader McCarthy went to Mar-a-Lago well-nigh the end of Jan, it was pretty clear the path that he had called," Ms. Cheney said. "It was one that was not true-blue to the Constitution. I believe we accept a duty to our oath of office that requires that yous put that to a higher place politics."
The alphabetic character to Mr. McCarthy is the committee's latest try to learn more about Mr. Trump's actions as rioters marauded through the edifice for hours on Jan. 6 and his frame of heed in the days that followed.
In particular, the panel said information technology was interested in a phone telephone call Mr. McCarthy had with Mr. Trump during the riot. Mr. McCarthy previously described the telephone call, in which he asked Mr. Trump to send aid to the Capitol, equally "very heated."
During that call, according to an business relationship given last year during impeachment proceedings, Mr. Trump sided with the rioters, telling Mr. McCarthy that they were evidently more than upset about the ballot than the Republican leader was.
The commission besides cited a Politico article reporting that Mr. McCarthy divulged to other Republicans that Mr. Trump had admitted some caste of responsibleness for the Jan. half-dozen assault in his i-on-one conversations with Mr. McCarthy.
The commission has interviewed more 340 witnesses, including former White House aides. On Wednesday, Kayleigh McEnany, a White House press secretarial assistant under Mr. Trump, appeared before the committee for a virtual interview, according to a person familiar with the situation.
The request to meet with Mr. McCarthy is the tertiary time the committee has asked a Republican lawmaker to voluntarily hold to an interview. Representatives Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and Jim Hashemite kingdom of jordan of Ohio have refused to cooperate with the panel.
Mr. Jordan — who in Nov told the Rules Commission that he had "nix to hibernate" — denounced the panel's research on Lord's day and called the request for an interview an "unprecedented and inappropriate demand."
Mr. Perry, who is close to Mr. Jordan, final calendar month refused a voluntary meeting with the committee, calling the panel "illegitimate."
Mr. McCarthy made like arguments on Wed, maxim the console wants to interview him "about public statements that accept been shared with the world, and private conversations not remotely related to the violence that unfolded at the Capitol."
"I have nothing else to add," he said.
To date, the committee has been reluctant to issue subpoenas for sitting members of Congress, citing the deference and respect lawmakers in the chamber are supposed to bear witness ane another. Only Mr. Thompson has pledged to accept such a step if needed.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/12/us/politics/kevin-mccarthy-jan-6-committee.html
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