Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) tore into House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Sunday calling him a “liar and a traitor” after audio confirmed that McCarthy did say he wanted then-President Donald Trump to resign following the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, a stance he denied having.
“Kevin McCarthy is a liar and a traitor. This is outrageous. And that is really the illness that pervades the Republican leadership right now. That they say one thing to the American public and something else in private,” Warren said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
McCarthy on Thursday flat-out denied a New York Times report that he planned to counsel Trump to resign, calling it “totally false and wrong.” Hours later, the Times published audio of McCarthy saying he planned to do just that.
“It would be my recommendation that he should resign,” McCarthy was heard telling fellow GOP House leaders in a Jan. 10, 2021, call discussing the Capitol attack’s aftermath.
McCarthy, who is campaigning to be House speaker if his party wins the majority in November, has not publicly commented on that audio recording as of Sunday morning.
Warren went on to rebuke her opposing party’s handling of the violence and some party members’ continuing denial, without evidence, that Trump won the election.
“They understand that it is wrong what happened, an attempt to overthrow our government, and that the Republicans instead want to continue to try to figure out how to make the 2020 election different instead of spending their energy on how it is that we go forward, in order to build an economy, in order to make this country,” she told CNN’s Dana Bash. “Work better for the people who sent us to Washington. Shame on Kevin McCarthy.”
