April 21, 2022 09:42 AM UTC

McCarthy Wanted To Pull Boebert's Plug Post-January 6th

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• by: Colorado Pols

Blockbuster allegations coming to light today in the New York Times that could shake apart the fragile peace between Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and the fractious crew he’d like to continue leading as Speaker of the House in 2023 if Republicans prevail this November–but more likely not after ex-President Donald Trump and the MAGA faction in Congress read what you’re about to:

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…

On a phone call with several other top House Republicans on Jan. 8, Mr. McCarthy said Mr. Trump’s conduct on Jan. 6 had been “atrocious and totally wrong.” He faulted the president for “inciting people” to attack the Capitol, saying that Mr. Trump’s remarks at a rally on the National Mall that day were “not right by any shape or any form.”

During that conversation, Mr. McCarthy inquired about the mechanism for invoking the 25th Amendment [Pols emphasis] — the process whereby the vice president and members of the cabinet can remove a president from office — before concluding that was not a viable option. Mr. McCarthy, who was among those who objected to the election results, was uncertain and indecisive, fretting that the Democratic drive to impeach Mr. Trump would “put more fuel on the fire” of the country’s divisions.

As seems to be the fashion these days for good or ill, these explosive allegations are contained in a new book forthcoming from Times reporters Alexander Burns and Jonathan Martin, titled This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America’s Future. Kevin McCarthy’s spokesman issued a few carefully-worded half-denials in response to the key allegations in today’s story, claiming McCarthy “never said he’d call Trump to say he should resign.”

And for the record, McCarthy also denies he wanted to see Rep. Lauren Boebert booted from social media along with Trump in the aftermath of January 6th:

During the same Jan. 10 conversation when he said he would call on Mr. Trump to resign, Mr. McCarthy told other G.O.P. leaders he wished the big tech companies would strip some Republican lawmakers of their social media accounts, as Twitter and Facebook had done with Mr. Trump. Members such as Lauren Boebert of Colorado had done so much to stoke paranoia about the 2020 election and made offensive comments online about the Capitol attack.

“We can’t put up with that,” Mr. McCarthy said, adding, “Can’t they take their Twitter accounts away, too?” [Pols emphasis]

It is difficult to imagine a more problematic story to come out for McCarthy if his goal is to retain control over the Republican House minority. McCarthy can issue strained denials all he wants–if Boebert believes this, and the MAGA faithful believe that McCarthy was talking 25th Amendment to get rid of Trump after the attack on the Capitol…

He’s got to go, right? This is an offense that Trump and his faithful surely cannot allow to stand. At the very least, if you were still wondering why McCarthy steadfastly refused to reel in his most embarrassing caucus members like Boebert while they dragged the discourse among sitting members of Congress through the gutter, it just might be that they’re ready to turn on McCarthy the moment an opportunity presents itself.

Like right now, for example. We’ll be on watch for the fallout.