In the days after the attempted coup in 2021, Republican leaders were reportedly saying in private what they wouldn’t say in public: Trump had to go.
In an excerpt from a new book, New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns reveal the depth of Republican’s anxiety over the former president. Here’s the lead to their story on Thursday:
In the days after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol building, the two top Republicans in Congress, Representative Kevin McCarthy and Senator Mitch McConnell, told associates they believed President Trump was responsible for inciting the deadly riot and vowed to drive him from politics. Mr. McCarthy went so far as to say he would push Mr. Trump to resign immediately: “I’ve had it with this guy,” he told a group of Republican leaders.
The account comes from a book written by the two Times reporters “This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden and the Battle for America’s Future.”
Sen. Mitch McConnell told top aides, “The Democrats are going to take care of the son of a bitch for us,” after it became clear that Democrats were going to impeach Trump in the House, adding, “if this isn’t impeachable, I don’t know what is.”
Mr. McCarthy said he would tell Mr. Trump of the impeachment resolution: “I think this will pass, and it would be my recommendation you should resign.”
The New York Times
“What he did is unacceptable. Nobody can defend that and nobody should defend it.”
Rep. Kevin McCarthy On Donald Trump
But their condemnation was short lived. The Times adds:
By the end of the month, he was pursuing a rapprochement with Mr. Trump, visiting him at Mar-a-Lago and posing for a photograph. (“I didn’t know they were going to take a picture,” Mr. McCarthy said, somewhat apologetically, to one frustrated lawmaker.)
Mr. McCarthy has never repeated his denunciations of Mr. Trump, instead offering a tortured claim that the real responsibility for Jan. 6 lies with security officials and Democratic legislative leaders for inadequately defending the Capitol complex.
The New York Times
As for McConnell, while he strongly favored impeachment shortly after Jan. 6, he would quickly learn that his Republican colleagues didn’t have the appetite to take on Trump. The Senate Minority Leader has also said he would back Trump if he was the GOP nominee for president in 2024.