McCarthy reportedly wanted to speak with Biden personally to ensure a ‘smooth transition’ into the Democrat’s presidency, new audio revealed on Wednesday evening
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy discussed the idea of removing donald trump from office using the 25th Amendment and revealed he wanted to call then-President-elect Joe Biden to ensure a ‘smooth transition,’ newly leaked audio showed on Wednesday evening.
The audio from a private January 8 call is the latest in a series of recorded tapes obtained by the authors of ‘This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America’s Future’ and shared with CNN that shed light on what McCarthy really felt about the former president in the immediate aftermath of the Capitol riot.
McCarthy called Trump’s actions on January 6 last year ‘atrocious and totally wrong.’
Those comments were published by the New York Times last month and initially denied by the GOP leader.
A new portion shows McCarthy floating the idea of pushing Cabinet members to remove then-President Trump via the 25th Amendment — before complaining the measure would take ‘too long.’
Audio reported on last month features McCarthy going a step further in a private call with his fellow GOP leaders, claiming he would speak to Trump about resigning.
Wednesday’s tape features House GOP floor director John Leganski telling McCarthy, seemingly of Trump, ‘I think the options that have been cited by the Democrats so far are the 25th Amendment, which is not exactly an elegant solution here.’
McCarthy responds: ‘That takes too long too. It could go back to the House, right?’
‘Correct. If the President were to submit a letter overruling the Cabinet and the vice president, two-thirds vote in the House and the Senate to overrule the President. So it’s kind of an armful,’ Leganski can be heard saying.
In another portion McCarthy mulls the idea of meeting with Biden, and possibly Trump meeting with Biden, before pouring cold water on the latter idea.
He also reportedly wanted Trump to speak with Biden but added ‘that’s not going to happen’
He also appears to rule out the possibility of impeaching Trump — something he ended up voting against later that year.
‘I do think the impeachment divides the nation further and continues the fight even greater. That’s why I want to reach out to Biden,’ McCarthy said.
He added, ‘I wanted the President to meet with Biden; that’s not going to happen.’
‘I want to see about us meeting with Biden, sitting down, make a smooth transition to show that, and continue to keep those statements going.’
The Minority Leader claimed a ‘smooth transition’ would be beneficial to both Biden and his own Republican caucus.
‘I’m trying to do it not from a basis of Republicans, of a basis of, hey, it’s not healthy for the nation,’ McCarthy said.
‘That’s a conversation I want to have with Biden himself.’
It’s not clear if he ended up reaching out to the Democrat leader or if such a meeting occurred.
DailyMail.com has reached out to both McCarthy’s office and the White House for comment.
But what is known, is that after publicly denouncing Trump for the riot, McCarthy flew to Florida later that month and visited with the ex-president at his Mar-a-Lago resort — cementing Trump’s political future that at the time had been in question over the insurrection.
It comes as the House committee investigating the Capitol riot gears up for a series of public hearings that are set to begin on June 9
More recently, McCarthy traveled to Trump’s West Palm Beach estate and met with him for three hours amid fallout from the earlier leaked audio tapes.
One of those is a January 10 call between McCarthy, House GOP Whip Steve Scalise and then-GOP Conference Chair Liz Cheney.
McCarthy told his colleagues the ‘only’ message he had for the ex-president: ‘I think this will pass, and it would be my recommendation you should resign.’
Other audio tapes feature the Republican leaders heaping criticism on pro-Trump lawmakers like Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz and Lauren Boebert.
But multiple reports indicate Trump is not angry with McCarthy over the comments, at least in part for how hard the lawmaker has worked to be back in the ex-president’s good graces.
The California Republican also appeared to weather the fallout within his own conference.
Initial speculation that McCarthy would fail in his bid to become House Speaker if Republicans take back the House in the midterms was squashed when he received a standing ovation at a House GOP-wide meeting last week.
He reportedly insisted at the meeting that the audio excerpts took him out of context.
Multiple lawmakers who previously criticized McCarthy, including Greene and Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, suggested they would support his leadership push.