Kevin McCarthy says ‘it’s all good’ between him and Trump after Jan. 6 panel
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy defended his decision to pull his nominations of the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot — one week after former President Donald Trump blasted the move.
“The right decision was the decision I made,” McCarthy told Fox News’ Dana Perino on Monday. “If other people change their opinion, read the rules, and I think they’ll come right back to the same conclusion.”
His remarks came just days after Trump slammed the California Republican’s decision as “very foolish.”
“Unfortunately, a bad decision was made. This committee — it was a bad decision not to have representation on this committee. That was a very, very foolish decision,” Trump told conservative radio host Wayne Allyn Root, accusing the panel of conducting a “one-sided witch hunt.”
“We have no representation on this panel,” Trump said earlier in the interview. “We should certainly have some Republicans, real Republicans … We have nobody on that panel who can fight back.”
“In a way, the Republicans should be ashamed of themselves.”
Later in the week, the former president doubled down in his criticism, saying it “would have been good” if there was more GOP representation on the committee.
“Well, I think in retrospect, I think it would have been very smart to put [Republicans on the committee] and again, I wasn’t involved in it from a standpoint so I never looked at it too closely. But I think it would have been good if we had representation.” he told Punchbowl News.
“I think in retrospect [McCarthy should’ve put Republicans on] to just have a voice. The Republicans don’t have a voice. They don’t even have anything to say,” Trump added.
Specifically, Trump said Republican Reps. Jim Banks of Indiana and Jim Jordan of Ohio would have been good picks to serve on the committee, however after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected their appointments, the GOP should have picked other candidates.
“But when [House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi wrongfully didn’t allow them, we should’ve picked other people,” Trump said. “We have a lot of good people in the Republican Party.”
Perino pressed McCarthy on Monday on whether he had spoken with the former president since his comments arose.
“Yes,” McCarthy said.
“Recently?” Perino asked for clarification.
“Yes,” he confirmed, adding that their relationship is “all good.”
Only two Republicans – Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois – serve on the committee, though both have been repeatedly criticized by Trump and his allies of being “RINOS,” or Republicans in name only, for failing to support his false claims that he lost the 2020 presidential election due to election fraud.