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.
The New York Times published a report detailing GOP leaders' mounting frustration with Trump after the insurrection.
According to reports from Burns and Martin, the audio captured part of a January 10, 2021, GOP leadership call in which McCarthy said the party should take advantage of House Democrats' efforts to impeach Trump for a second time.
In the recording, Cheney asks McCarthy if he thinks Trump will resign.
McCarthy said that he was thinking of having a conversation with him tonight.
McCarthy told his colleagues that he was going to call Trump.
McCarthy thinks that the impeachment resolution will pass the House.
The lawmaker lays out how he would present the idea to Trump.
McCarthy said he would tell Trump on the call that he should resign.
—Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) April 22, 2022
McCarthy did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
According to The Times, McCarthy never had the resignation conversation with Trump after other Republican lawmakers warned him of possible backlash from Trump supporters.
Following the Capitol attack, ten House Republicans voted to impeach Trump. McCarthy wasn't one of them. Trump was found not guilty in the Senate.
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