House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) didn’t have the best of days on Thursday, as his denial of a New York Times story about his comments after the Jan. 6 insurrection was proven false after audio of a phone conversation he had with colleagues was leaked.
And yet things might not be getting any better for McCarthy, if what the two Times reporters on that story told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow comes to pass.
Alexander Burns and Jonathan Martin appeared on Maddow’s primetime show to discuss their story—specifically, the phone call in which McCarthy told Republican leaders in Congress that he would tell then-President Donald Trump he should resign in light of the impending impeachment resolution.
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“I would just say for the book-buying audience out there, for people who work in politics: This is only the start,” said Martin, whose co-bylined report Thursday is derived from the upcoming book This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden and the Battle for America’s Future. “We have captured some of the most intimate and sensitive conversations in the extraordinary period following Jan. 6 on tape. And there is much more to come between now and when the book is out on May 3.”
Maddow then asked Burns about how McCarthy’s denial of the Times story now looks. “It really does appear to not be the truth for Mr. McCarthy,” the MSNBC host said.
“Well, that’s a pretty diplomatic way of putting it, Rachel. It was a totally bogus denial, as your audience just heard,” Burns replied. “And I think that what this moment captures, in addition to everything Jonathan just said, and what this tape in particular captures, is just the staggering gulf between what Republican leaders say about Donald Trump in public, and to his face, and what they will say about him in private.”
Maddow then said she wouldn’t be surprised if there were calls for McCarthy’s resignation.
“But of course, he answers to his caucus,” she acknowledged.
The MSNBC host then asked if the pair have on tape how McCarthy also called for some members of his party to have their social media accounts suspended, as Twitter and Facebook did with then-President Donald Trump.
“That is correct, and we have a lot more on tape from this period, which is at the highest levels of American politics,” Martin said. “It is sensitive, it is delicate, and it is high stakes. We have it all on tape, and it’s going to—I think—tell a very different story about this period than the story that many people are trying to tell right now.”
