‘I Like Him’: Donald Trump Shuts Down Media-Driven Narrative of Rift Between Him and Kevin McCarthy
“I think that I’ve had actually a very good relationship with him,” Trump told the Wall Street Journal. “I like him. And other than that brief period of time, I suspect he likes me quite a bit.”
We’re seven months away from the 2022 midterm elections and all signs point to an epic and perhaps historic drubbing for Democrats in the House and Senate and in statehouses across the country thanks in no small part to the leadership failures of Joe Biden.
Naturally, when Democrats are on the ropes, the mainstream media springs into action to provide a hefty assist. That’s exactly what’s happened over the last couple of weeks as various claims made by the rabidly partisan Jan. 6th Committee have been carefully leaked to the press and book writers/reporters from the New York Times, who in turn are going into overdrive in giving the stories their best spins in hopes of distracting people from the self-destruction currently taking place within the Democratic party.
We saw it last week with yet another of their infamous “bombshell” reports, this time in their insinuations about how House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy was allegedly so ashamed of what happened on January 6th, 2021 that he told Rep. Liz Cheney on a House Republican leadership call four days later that then-President Donald Trump should resign in disgrace.
As Fuzzy noted, however, during the call – which we only have select audio snippets of – McCarthy made clear that “he would recommend to Trump that he resign rather than face the humiliation of his Cabinet and Congress deeming him unfit to serve and removing him without his consent.”
Not only has McCarthy denied the “walls are closing in” spin on the media’s reports about his call with Cheney, but in an interview with the Wall Street Journal after stories about the call broke, Trump himself sought to debunk the media-driven narrative that sprang from last week’s news by stating in so many words that there was no rift at all between him and McCarthy:
Mr. Trump said he wasn’t pleased to learn of Mr. McCarthy’s comments in the House leadership call, but he said the California Republican had never ultimately advised him to quit. He said that Mr. McCarthy quickly changed his stance “when he found out the facts” and embraced him fully, a few weeks after the Jan. 10, 2021, call.
“He made a call. I heard the call. I didn’t like the call,” said Mr. Trump. “But almost immediately as you know, because he came here and we took a picture right there—you know, the support was very strong,” Mr. Trump said, pointing to a spot in the room where Mr. McCarthy had taken a photo with the former president in late January, an image seen as formalizing their rapprochement and confirming Mr. Trump continued dominance of the party.
“I think it’s all a big compliment, frankly,” Mr. Trump said of Mr. McCarthy and other Republicans who initially criticized him after Jan. 6 and then said they would still support him. “They realized they were wrong and supported me.”
[…]
Asked whether he still supported Mr. McCarthy for speaker, should Republicans win control of the House in November, Mr. Trump didn’t answer directly. “Well I don’t know of anybody else that’s running and I think that I’ve had actually a very good relationship with him,” Mr. Trump said. “I like him. And other than that brief period of time, I suspect he likes me quite a bit.”
There’s nothing the media would love more at this stage in an election year than to paint Republicans as being “in disarray” heading into the midterms and ultimately the 2024 presidential election. They tried it a few months ago with their trumping up an alleged rift between Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Trump, who both shut down that discussion when they not only denied it but also pointed to how the press was trying to construct a false narrative in order to divide Republicans at a time when they should be united.
In essence, that’s what Trump did in his comments to the Wall Street Journal as well. While he didn’t bend over backward in gushing over McCarthy, he also didn’t throw him under the bus, which should relieve Republicans because as it stands now they are poised to make major gains in the House and possibly the Senate, too. The last thing they want to happen is for anyone—much less Trump—to take the bait and feed the media monster over rumors of supposed deep divisions within the GOP.
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
I have no idea why Don likes the snake.
I believe he is looking long, and the snake well be dispatched immediately after the mid-terms.
Trump now has something over McCarthy’s head. McCarthy is on probation until he actually delivers something. Trump is scoring big campaigning for his candidates so the tide is shifting against the squishes. McCarthy’s position is very tenuous. He has to convince the Trump newbies he is on board with MAGA if he wants to be Speaker. We’ll see.
Trump may like him however the fact remains that he is a worthless RINO.
McCarthy wouldn’t be the first person Trump liked who stabbed him in the back.
Mathis, Sessions, Barr, are a few that immediately come to mind.
Once is an accidental error, twice is an unfortunate coincidence, three or more begin to demonstrate a pattern being formed.
The Democrats are hoping for a friendly GOPe Speaker that they can work with when the Republicans take back the House. You know, the ones that really are Democrats.
They already have one. Why stir up trouble?
Let’s say McCarthy gets to be in charge for two years and gets nothing done, they there could easily be a revolt against the repubs in 2024 and the lose the house and a dem stays in the white house as a result of his ineffective leadership. Trump would have to run on Mc Carthy’s record for the 2023-2024 period in addition to his own.
Wow, that’s pretty wild. There is only one person who had the motivation to go after McCarthy and that is Liz Cheney, daughter of Darth Vader. McCarthy has already declared that there will be loads of investigations starting next year. There won’t be a revolt against the Repubs unless McConnell & Co. block all of the MAGA legislation coming out of the House while assuming the role of Hillary in going after Trump. Trump will be running on his own record, not McCarthy’s,
The only way Dems win in 2024 is for the GOP leadership to pull another Paul Ryan by leading an army of squishes into retirement… after DeSantis challenges Trump for the nomination. Not going to happen. None of it. Trump’s candidates get swept in this November and DeSantis gets re-elected, hopefully in a landslide. Hard to imagine McCarthy not jumping all over that to launch an avalanche of investigations.
remember when McCarthy had to clean up for himself in regards to the Benghazi investigation?
The problem with McCarthy is inertia. When the pressure is on, he caves. He is not the most important problem moving forward, it’s the Senate as an institution. I don’t expect November is going to fix the problem even if the Republicans win all 100 seats. McConnell would still find a way to lose the the Dems by one vote.
But with the MAGA flame torching McCarthy’s ass, he will be caving to the right people for once. If not, then he becomes a focal point and then Trump winning in 2024 will probably fix that.
Trump is the defacto party leader right now, not McConnell. THAT is the key problem that few people here on these threads can stay focused on. We are already fighting over something that will not happen, DeSantis challenging Trump for 2024. DeSantis may very well be president in 2024 but not if he jumps the gun and f…ks up by wrestling with Trump for control.
As you can see by the comments on these threads, the Dem/Never Trumpers strategy of dividing us is working. Why? The usual reasons. We suffer from the same problem Twitter has: being incubated in our echo chambers. Just tap on our personal mazes and we are all scurrying about repeating the same arguments over and over again. Very depressing to see how easy it is to knock us out of focus. We really don’t deserve to win.
Okay, I upvoted before I read your entire comment.
I retract it.
Nothing to lose, nothing to win, take the high road. He put the burden where it belongs.
Picking his battles while managing the battlefield.
I see it as McCarthy saying that if a 25th A removal was about to happen, really happen, he would advise DJT to resign rather than be removed. If for no other reason than to deprive the Commies the ability to claim they removed him for cause. That kind of advice is something supporters will do, Pull back and regroup.
The situation never materialized, so the advice was never given.
Sometimes we need loyal supporters who are distanced enough from the fray to provide the council those in the thick of it cannot see.
If the Repubs take the house, what can they really do other than provide a roadblock, or at least a speed-bump, on the Dem’s trip to destroy the Republic. With Biden still in the White House nothing passed by the House will get enacted, but nothing supporting his (or whoever’s) agenda will become law. Making Biden rule by Ex Order will be a “W”; orders can be removed with the stroke of a pen, as we have seen.
The problem I have with that explanation is, he seems to be speaking to Cheney about a House resolution, that he thinks is likely to pass. But that would not advance the 25A agenda at all.
I agree that if Trump were about to be removed it would be wiser for him to resign. But at the time of this conversation that did not seem even slightly likely. The 25A process can only be initiated by the VP, and Pence had already announced he wasn’t going there. A House resolution urging him to change his mind was never going to have any effect on him. So why would McCarthy even be contemplating such a scenario?
Plus, if Pence had decided to invoke the 25A, surely it would have been his place, not McCarthy’s, to advise Trump to resign.
The phone call took place on January 10th; Pence announced he would not back the 25th effort on the 12th. Two days later.
Still, Pence had given no indication that he would invoke the 25th, or even that he was seriously considering it. For McCarthy to be contemplating advising the president to resign when the process of removing him had not even begun, and there was no reason to suppose it would ever happen, seems very premature. Especially since Trump hadn’t resigned when he was impeached, and McCarthy had not advised him to do so on that occasion.
The whole idea of removing him by the 25A never made any sense, because it’s easier to remove a president against his will by impeachment than that way. The 25A is designed for two scenarios: A president who does not oppose his removal, but who is unable to resign; and a beloved president whom Congress doesn’t want to disgrace by impeaching him, but whom it feels it must remove. Neither of those applied to Trump. He was definitely going to oppose his removal, and the Democrats hated him.
LOLOL Of course Pence had given no indication of whether or not he’d support the move by the 10th, or even the 11th. He was waiting to find out where the American people fell on this. I just wrote a rather lengthy response to you on this point in the other thread so won’t rehash it all here. https://legalinsurrection.com/2022/04/media-hoax-no-kevin-mccarthy-did-not-say-trump-should-resign-over-j6/#comment-1278091
You keep focusing on the resolution as if its legal or Constitutional function is the point, but it’s not. The point of the resolution was to rally the American people against the President, showing that Congress had lost faith and all that garbage. It’s politics and for some reason you have a hard time understanding politics. Probably because you are a very logical and linear thinker, and politics takes that plus imagination, intuition, and some degree of dastardliness. 🙂
McCarthy is old news, weak tea, milquetoast, swamp, etc.
Compare Jim Jordan.
If McNothing gets in, he’ll stab us in the back.
He’s another Boehner, though not a drunk.
McCarthy is a loser. Jordan is many respects isn’t better. Makes lots of noise about big tech oppressing us, while he takes their campaign donations.
This is as bad as Trump endorsing McConnell a couple of years ago.
These people are SWAMP. Figure it out, Donald. Quit sucking up to these losers.
I agree and wondering what he’s thinking.
Then again, it’s PDJT’s to lose. He might have a plan.
That’s my point. It’s NOT PDJT’s to lose. It’s OUR lives and OUR rights and OUR children’s futures going down the tubes NOW.
PDJT needs to wake up and smell the coffee.
What makes you so sure he hasn’t?
Remember the perspective and reality of the situation.
Trump is one single man- no different than any of us. He does not have supernatural or superhuman ability.
Also, he is fighting direct, indirect and even internal sabotage from all sides at all times relentlessly.
And no, I personally do NOT agree with some of his choices/decisions so I’m not making apologies for him or giving him a pass in any way.
That said, we don’t know what he knows, have the information he has access to or viewing the situation from his perspective. ( and yes, Trump could be doing all that and still be wrong in the end)
We have to always remain vigilant and realize what we get from the media ( all of them) is not fully accurate and tainted from the beginning so it can be “us” who have the distorted understanding.
What I am sure of is that no other single candidate has shown me the unwavering desire to fight for MAGA ( Trump has had his trial by fire) and has the resources to fight the left and win. (I support DeSantis in regard to being a “like mind” and a capable warrior but he has yet to show me the resources to withstand the full brunt of the left as Trump has).
So until there is an equal choice ( equal in both abilities because a dead brave warrior no matter how brave is still dead and we still lose)- there simply is no choice but to support Trump and hope (pray) his choices are founded in information we don’t have.
Respectfully disagree, Taurus. I will never “Trust the plan.” Of course Trump has tons of info I lack. But “trusting the plan” equates to failure.
ALL of us have to chip in to change course. Trump had no plan for J6 except throwing a Hail Mary pass that Pence — Pence! The many who FOLDED on – you remember the thing! (haha) — in his home state as governor — would cause the right thing to happen on January 6th. That was really his total plan.
Trump is great, compared to everyone else except DeSantis. But Trump has limitations and if you don’t objectively factor them in, you’re going to make the same mistake as those poor souls rotting in the D.C. jail.
— Which, by the way, could have been me.
On the other comment…
>>LL of us have to chip in to change course. Trump had no plan for J6 except throwing a Hail Mary pass that Pence — Pence! The many who FOLDED on – you remember the thing! (haha) — in his home state as governor — would cause the right thing to happen on January 6th. That was really his total plan.
Yes, lets turn the clock back. The SCOTUS refused to her the states challenge, most in the Congress didn’t support it, Many states sat on their hands and either allowed it as RINO accomplices/ran cover for it/stalled efforts to uncover it.
In light of all of that, what other “plan” do you think Trump ( as POTUS) could come up with? I would like to hear your plan as to what he could/should have done.
Its not so much a “limitation” (Which Trump as all people have) as it was at that point an impossible situation with no path to victory.
As far as those people in jail..
Let me state for the record I think that whole thing was a set up and false flag with all the trimmings and those people had as much right to “mostly peacefully protest” as BLM did and their incarceration/prosecution is against the Constitution and unlawful by any “legitimate” read.
That said, those people in those jails in many cases pushed limits they might should have not pushed (not saying the punishment fits the offense because this is a political persecution- not a LE matter now).
Even as former LE, at MOST they should have been charged with trespass (non criminal) and disorderly conduct- maybe a $25 fine and 8 hrs community service ( for the extreme ones)
He might also have hard stops and other realities resulting in necessary “deals with various devils” to get the best that can be gotten.
Trump’s path is not dissimilar to operations in “Nam.
An ambush, punji pit, snipers and toe poppers at all points along the trail ending in an ambush and no reliable ability to distinguish friend from foe up front.
Trump is working with the current leadership while campaigning to replace as many GOPe as possible. Trump has a list of those who voted to impeach him and is putting his priority there. Why go against the current speaker now?. Let’s get past the midterms and see who the house votes in,
“Working” with them how? I don’t see any useful work being done with McCarthy.
We’re losing our country. I favor walking any of these turncoats on the plank, and letting them swim in the shark infested waters by themselves. After all, McCarthy has let all of our J6th people rot in jail all by themselves. Not lifted one finger.
He would let Geo. Washington walk to the gallows and say how great it was Washington was being punished.
Well in all fairness ( even though personally I agree with your sentiment and observations to a large part)
Right now with us (legitimate MAGA conservatives) only having a fraction of the party out of power in all three “chambers of government”- there are hard stops and limits as to what can actually be done.
Also, we don’t have the luxury or even reality of having a bench of true MAGA conservatives ready and able to do a 1:1 swap with all the RINO’s.
Given that reality ( despite personally wanting the sword of Justice to take heads off in a scorched Earth manner) we have to adjust what we do by what is realistically possible and attainable/sustainable.
We must not allow “perfection” to become the enemy of realistically possible in the face of an enemy who has no such reservations.
Agree and disagree Taurus. I’m all for “reality.” I’m all against the beatings we accept submissively.
The left would never supinely accept someone like McCarthy in leadership.
Soooo, they can’t do much, but they can sure as hell visit the D.C. jail. That’s the LEAST they could do. They could be visiting the families of those jailed. They could be trying to expose those in charge of all the facilities that are beating these citizens.
They could be doing so many things. Leading protests.
They’re doing none of it.
Wake up. They could find some testosterone.
But that’s a non sequitur answer regarding McCarthy.
I think we are in total agreement on the entire “GOPE” response to the J-6 false flag atrocity so I’ll just say I share your sentiment entirely but its out of place.
I think the whole RIO establishment should be gone for their lack of action and all the other things they didn’t do.
That said, we still have a critical battle to win and insisting on perfection isn’t going to get us there.
High standards yes- but at the end of the day, we have to take the beach before we march to Berlin and right now the enemy has the high ground and we are pinned.
That is going to be a series of small incremental wins with a few losses and compromises until we get off the beach and reconstitute.
We’ll have to agree to disagree.
From you
>>>We’ll have to agree to disagree.
Fair enough. I don’t think we are all that far apart though. (not on the core issues anyway)
Well, that’s not true, they accepted Pelosi, despite AOC protesting outside her office and the Squad pushing for an even more radical nutter to be Speaker.
What is happening right now on the left is the exact trajectory many would have us on: pushing too far, too fast, with too many people who are distasteful to most Americans (like AOC and their loons, we have MTG, Matt Gaetz*, and et al.). We made the same mistakes they are making in the 2010s with the Tea Party and seem doomed to repeat them in 2020s.
*Gaetz is my rep, and I will be voting for him in November. I don’t find him at all a loon, but I am not talking about hard-core Constitutional conservative MAGA people like me.
Whenever audio/video evidence is released in ‘snippets’ you know the snipper has an agenda to make somebody look worse than they are. Liz Cheany (who most certainly was the leaker here) wants McCarthy to look as bad as possible.
This was my take, too. She’s a revolting, disgusting human being, and she must be driven from the party entirely now that she’s been run out of leadership.
There’s no real way to throw someone out of a political party. You can throw them out of party events, you can refuse to have anything to do with them, but they can still identify as Republicans or Democrats and the press will report them as such, and they can still contest primaries.