House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is now firmly in the crosshairs of the House Select Committee on the January 6 Capitol insurrection, according to a report from ABC News.
McCarthy is being asked to sit for a voluntary interview with the committee:
Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the chairman of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, invited House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., on Wednesday to sit for an interview with investigators.
“If he has information he wants to share with us, and is willing to voluntarily come in, I’m not taking the invitation off the table,” Thompson said in a phone interview with ABC News.
Earlier this week, McCarthy was asked if he would agree to cooperate with the Jan. 6 committee, to which he replied:
“I don’t have anything to add. I have been very public, but I wouldn’t hide from anything.”
That led Chairman Thompson to note:
“If Leader McCarthy has nothing to hide, he can voluntarily come before the committee.”
However, Thompson also made it clear that he may send a formal request to McCarthy for him to appear before the panel. If McCarthy refuses, he could be subpoenaed, which would be problematic for the California Republican, who would be facing a criminal referral to the Justice Department if he ignores a subpoena.
McCarthy has admitted that he spoke with former President Donald Trump on Jan. 6, as CNN reported in February:
In an expletive-laced phone call with House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy while the US Capitol was under attack, then-President Donald Trump said the rioters cared more about the election results than McCarthy did.
“Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are,” Trump said, according to lawmakers who were briefed on the call afterward by McCarthy.
McCarthy insisted that the rioters were Trump’s supporters and begged Trump to call them off.
Trump’s comment set off what Republican lawmakers familiar with the call described as a shouting match between the two men. A furious McCarthy told the then-President the rioters were breaking into his office through the windows, and asked Trump, “Who the f–k do you think you are talking to?” according to a Republican lawmaker familiar with the call.
The Jan. 6 committee has formally requested interviews with two members of Congress so far: Reps. Scott Perry, (R-PA) and Jim Jordan, (R-OH). Both have said they will not agree to be interviewed.
