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In the morning, the House committee on Jan. 6 held its second public hearing, House minority leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) Was across town, echoing an instruction he has repeatedly given to his fellow Republicans: Ignore it.
Speaking to donors gathered at the Georgetown Four Seasons, McCarthy recommended that Republicans talk about other issues that could help them regain a majority in both houses of Congress, according to people familiar with the meeting, such as the rate hike. inflation and the gas record. prices, all under the watchful eye of Democrats.
While most of the grassroots members in the Republican House conference have heeded his leadership, another influential Republican has tuned in with every hearing. and he has become increasingly angry — to the point of being about to shout on television, ”according to a close adviser — with what he considers the lack of defense of his Capitol allies.
Former President Donald Trump has been saying in private for months that McCarthy’s decision to remove pro-Trump Republicans from the Jan. 6 select committee was a mistake, a mistake that has become clearer as Trump watches the hearings that they are working to build the case that he should be criminally charged for conspiring to annul the 2020 presidential election.
According to a close adviser, who like others spoke on condition of anonymity to detail private conversations, Trump has made it clear to anyone who hears that “there is no one to defend me” on the podium before, during or after of the hearings. The blame falls directly on McCarthy’s shoulders, according to some Republican congressional advisers and advisers close to the former president.
On June 21, the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021 Capitol attack described a scheme backed by President Trump to cancel the 2020 election. (Video: Adriana Usero / The Washington Post)
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Several Trump advisers said they were especially frustrated because they were unaware of the committee’s discussions, plans, and divisions so they could better prepare for what was to come.
McCarthy’s bet to exclude the The pro-Trump GOP’s perspective from the committee of inquiry could prove costly, as it works to secure Trump’s support for his eventual presidential candidacy if the GOP regains a majority in the House. While most of the conference has rejected Trump’s anger, any blatant reaction from him could inflame his allies at the GOP conference who have remained uncompromising about whether they would vote for McCarthy to be the top leader, a group small but significant that could endanger quickly. their possibilities.
McCarthy has acknowledged that his rise to the presidency is not assured without the support of Trump’s base. According to a person familiar with the discussions, in recent months he has approached Stephen K. Bannon to prevent him from pushing the idea of Trump being a speaker.
McCarthy’s allies argue he had no choice but to remove Republicans from the committee after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi prevented Reps Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Jim Banks (R-Ind.) From they would sit on the panel because they could. be called as a witness by the commission. McCarthy also used GOP representatives Troy E. Nehls (Tex.), Rodney Davis (Ill.) And Kelly Armstrong (ND) to participate, options that Pelosi (D-Calif.) Approved.
Trump has pushed allies to make it clear he has not backed McCarthy for the presidency whenever they can, and over the weekend told Conservative talk show host Wayne Allyn Root that he has only backed McCarthy’s re-election campaign.
“No, I supported him in his career. But I didn’t support anyone as a speaker,” he said in the interview.
Asked on Tuesday about Trump’s unease with the lack of Republicans on the panel, McCarthy admitted to speaking with the former president the day before after that talk show. He avoided the question and another about Trump trying to cancel the election, saying the most important issue in people’s minds is rising prices.
“We have seen what Nancy Pelosi has done with this political committee. One thing I do know is that since Nancy has appointed this political committee, gas has risen $ 1.86, “he said at a news conference Tuesday. He added that Democrats are” focused on an issue that is not focuses on citizenship. The public is focusing on why inflation is so high, why the border is insecure, crime is rising, everything costs more. “
McCarthy’s office did not respond to repeated requests for comment for this story.
McCarthy is no stranger to overcoming possible problems with the former president, most recently when the leaked audio revealed that he intended to ask Trump to resign after Jan. 6. As Republicans waited breathlessly for how Trump would respond, many were surprised to find that he was delighted to learn that McCarthy never asked him to side with him, which he saw as a source of his lasting influence over the party. .
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But in recent weeks, Trump’s allies, including Bannon, have repeatedly told Trump that McCarthy’s decision not to seat Republicans was a “strategic failure” that shows he could be weak in leading the Biden administration oversight hearings if he was chosen as a spokesperson. according to two people familiar with the conversations. This perception has stuck with Trump, as well as the recognition that there are few options of who else could replace McCarthy as the top leader.
Once it became clear that Pelosi would not die by allowing Jordan and Banks to the panel, all five gave McCarthy his blessing for not participating in the committee Shortly afterwards, Pelosi announced that he would choose Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill .) to join the committee. another eight elections he made for the committee that already included MP Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.).
Their involvement, McCarthy told donors in Georgetown, has somewhat undermined the argument that the committee and its findings are “illegitimate” since they can argue bipartisanship.
A person familiar with McCarthy’s argument said he has told Trump that if he had cooperated with the committee and installed members, it would be more difficult to attack the committee as a politician and they would be responsible for more of the committee’s findings. . McCarthy also argued that he could not be seen as weak by letting Pelosi dictate his decisions. But Trump has not given in to getting angry with him, regularly asking why no one is defending him on television, that person said.
In retrospect, some of these members said they would have preferred to have participated, but did not blame McCarthy for his decision, because he chose to face Pelosi instead of bowing to his request.
“I will not stay here to question the trial of leader McCarthy if he should do it, he should not do it. He made a summons,” Nehls said. “But boy, if I had gotten into that panel, I could have asked some very, very serious deep questions.”
Jordan said they were left with no choice, and stressed that Pelosi would probably have denied that other Republicans would replace him and Banks.
“The retrospective is always wonderful,” Jordan said. “It would be nice if we could cross-examine the witnesses, if we could see other documents, but that decision was made a year ago when Nancy Pelosi first said in U.S. history that she would not let the minority leader put the committee he had chosen.
Deputy Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) Did not say directly whether he wanted his colleagues to be on the panel to defend Trump and him. On Tuesday, Arizona Secretary of State Russell “Rusty” Bowers, a Republican, said Biggs had tried to get him to sign a letter acknowledging that he would support the desertification of voters who would cast a representative vote for Biden, who won the state in 2020..
“I don’t think this was designed to get to the truth. And as a guy who litigated a lot, I would never get to the truth if you didn’t question anyone,” he said.
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The scenario might never have unfolded if Republicans in the Senate had approved the creation of an independent commission with five Republicans and five Democrats who would share equal powers of summons to file a report late last year. . Only 35 Republicans in the House supported the measure, some of whom still believe an independent commission would have saved a lot of headaches.
“Until it was against, we would have had at least 100 more votes in the House to support this bipartisan initiative. But they all gave up when Trump opposed the night before,” said Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich .), who voted in favor of Trump’s removal.
The lack of Trump-aligned Republicans participating in the panel has allowed committee members to investigate and present their findings without the distractions that have become commonplace in House hearings, regardless of which party is the majority.
“I think McCarthy’s decision not to recommend responsible people to the select committee was another big disaster,” said Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), A Jan. 6 panel member who has seen the his share of incendiary hearings as the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. “I think it was a strategic mistake of historical proportions. It has been a good thing for the country because we have been able to operate in a non-partisan way without, you know, political disturbances.”
Republicans argue in private that their participation would have been similarly limited because minority petitions are often ignored in established committees, so it is pointless to have them on the panel.
“In a new majority, Congress will have a strong duty of oversight and all sorts of things that have happened over the last two years,” said Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), Who …