“I’m the only one taking all the heat for protecting people from Trump! I’m just keeping the party together!” he shouted to Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.) during a previously undisclosed meeting in McCarthy’s office on Feb. 25, 2021. “I’ve been working with Trump to keep him from going after Republicans like you and blowing up the party and destroying all our work!”
Stunned by McCarthy’s anger, Herrera Beutler began to cry. Through tears, she apologized for not telling her sooner that she had confirmed to the media the details of a call McCarthy made to Trump on January 6, 2021, asking him to tell his supporters to leave the US Capitol.
“You should have come to me!” McCarthy said. “Why did you go to the press? That’s no way to thank me!”
“What did you want me to do? Lies?” Herrera Beutler shot back. “I did what I thought was right.”
The intense meeting between Republican lawmakers is detailed in the new book, “Unchecked: The Untold Story Behind Donald Trump’s Failed Congressional Impeachment,” by Washington Post reporter Karoun Demirjian and Politico reporter Rachael Bade, a copy of which The Post received it before its publication. next week. Several excerpts detail McCarthy’s state of mind from Election Day 2020 to the start of the select committee that invested the January 6 uprising.
“McCarthy’s tirade against Herrera Beutler was just the beginning of what would become a broad GOP campaign to whitewash the details of what happened on Jan. 6 after the second impeachment,” the authors write.
McCarthy and Herrera Beutler both denied the explosive details from their 2021 meeting in a statement to the authors, saying their reporting “is wrong.”
“Beyond the numerous inaccuracies – dramatized to fit a screen adaptation, not to serve as a document of record. We know it’s wrong because we were the only ones in the room for this conversation,” said the joint statement to the authors. The authors state that their reporting was verified by a person in the room during the debate and numerous lawmakers who heard the confession directly from McCarthy.
Brief amicus decision
The book describes the political calculations made by congressional leaders and those who played a central role in the two impeachment trials against Trump that ended in acquittals. McCarthy’s internal conflict began shortly after Trump claimed that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
Trump’s false claim that he had won the election urged his allies in the House of Representatives to sign a friendly report asking the Supreme Court to overturn election results in key states. According to the book, McCarthy sought the advice of Rep. Liz Cheney (Wyo.), then chairwoman of the House GOP conference, about what he should do about the amicus brief, ultimately telling her that he would not sign it because she would give the federal government too much power over elections.”
But even though McCarthy knew that “the embrace [Trump’s] denials could cause national unrest,” according to the book, the minority leader eventually relented. He eventually signed the document after learning that “Trump and his allies had exploded when they noticed” that his name was missing. McCarthy, at the time, blamed a “technical error” for the release.
McCarthy’s office denied to the authors that he had ever sought advice from Cheney or had reservations about supporting the amicus brief. Bade and Demirjian note in the book that the denial contradicts what was relayed to them by multiple people in McCarthy’s office at the time, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.
McCarthy often shied away from advising his conference between Election Day and Inauguration Day, refusing to reveal whether he would vote to decertify the election or vote for impeachment. The writers describe him as “frozen between his loyalty to Trump and his ethical compass.” Each time, he chose his ambition.
McCarthy not only blessed efforts to overturn the election results on January 6, but also sparked a rap movement. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) to set up shop outside the House floor and lobby colleagues to join the effort. The decisions worried some of McCarthy’s staff, according to the book, as well as more moderate House Republicans, who worried that dissent could lead to violence.
Consequences of impeachment vote
McCarthy often found herself wanting to do the right thing before changing course, the book details. After being evacuated to Fort McNair while riots were unfolding in the Capitol on January 6, McCarthy called Cheney to inform him that upon his return, he would force the GOP conference to abandon its objections to the electoral college count. But he pulled back after Jordan argued that pulling out at that point would make them look weak. Jordan’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
“However, the GOP leader’s lust for power had come at a heavy price: By refusing to push the president, McCarthy had helped turn the GOP into a party that promoted conspiracy theories and lies,” the authors write. “Now those lies had led to violence and an uprising. And as much as he hated to admit it, McCarthy was ashamed.”
Knowing that a vote to impeach Trump would drive a dagger into his presidential ambitions, but finding Trump’s inaction on January 6 just as vulnerable, McCarthy allowed his conference to vote their conscience on impeachment. He also knew that they could vote in a way that he could not.
“Republicans were coming to him, asking for answers on whether they should vote to impeach the president. McCarthy didn’t know what to say to them. How could he turn on Trump when he needed it to one day win his dream job — yet how could he combine his rank and file in impeachment objections when he knew Trump was guilty,” the authors write.
Herrera Beutler was one of many Republicans who sought his advice. Their conversations turned into “a therapy session” for McCarthy, who knew that telling the truth about Trump’s actions on Jan. 6 would sway her vote for impeachment, according to the book. He told her about the call where Trump praised the rebels, how Trump has been reluctant to act or take responsibility for his actions since then.
McCarthy’s promise to defend those who chose to impeach Trump on January 6 was short-lived. Trump was “apoplectic” at McCarthy’s suggestion to censure him instead of holding an impeachment trial, allegedly telling “everyone who would listen that the man who had once been ‘my Kevin’ was actually a “p– -y” biggest in Washington. . McCarthy’s conference was rallying around Trump again, outraged after Twitter and Facebook banned him from their platforms, and colleagues lined up with Democrats to impeach their president.
To make amends, McCarthy met with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida in late January 2021, telling his fellow Republicans who voted for impeachment that his meeting was “to make peace with the former president” and to ensure that he will not act to retaliate against them.
But McCarthy’s outburst a month later with Herrera Beutler and his decision to back Cheney’s ouster as conference chairman later reflected similar vindictive tactics by Trump. The former president ended up working to find primary challengers for all 10 Republicans, including Herrera Beutler. At least five of them will not return to Congress.
