House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy was booed when he began a virtual appearance at former President Donald Trump’s rally in Wyoming on Saturday.
Videos circulating on social media show that McCarthy, a California Republican, is being mocked by Trump supporters while making virtual support of Harriet Hagemen, a Republican candidate running in Congress against Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney.
McCarthy was recently embroiled in controversy after a leaked audio recording showed him telling Cheney and other lawmakers that he wanted Trump to step down after the January 6, 2021 riot in the U.S. capital. The recording painted a very different picture of McCarthy’s views from the one he portrayed in public at the time, prompting several lawmakers and Republican groups to criticize him for lying and appearing to be on both sides.
The House minority leader initially tried to deny the recording as “totally false and incorrect”, and then tried to say that his statements only marked a potential scenario that was being discussed at the time.
Since then, he has appeared at various events praising Trump, which has led him to believe that he is afraid of tarnishing his relationship with the former president in the middle of the 2022 midterm elections. the leaked recording believes McCarthy has an “inferiority complex,” but later claimed the incident did not affect their relationship.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was booed during a Trump rally in Wyoming on Saturday. Here, McCarthy speaks on May 18, 2022 in Washington, DC. BRENDAN SMILOWSKI / AFP / Getty Images
“I think it’s a big compliment, frankly,” Trump told The Wall Street Journal last month, referring to McCarthy and other Republicans who initially criticized him after the uprising, but later sided with him. “They realized they were wrong and supported me.”
“I think I ‘ve had a really good relationship [McCarthy]”I like it.” And apart from that short period of time, I suspect I like it a lot. “
The Wyoming rally marks an opportunity for Trump to protest against Cheney, who voted for the former president’s removal, and has been one of his most prominent Republican critics. However, the event comes after several of Trump’s recent endorsements in Republican primaries failed to gain any strength.
The rally also comes after Trump faced major legal setbacks in New York this week. A federal judge dismissed her lawsuit against New York Attorney General Letitia James, while another court ruled that two of her sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump, were to be questioned under oath as part of the ongoing criminal investigation.