McCarthy Accused Gaetz, Brooks of Endangering Fellow Republicans after Capitol Riot, Leaked Audio Reveals

House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy accused Representative Matt Gaetz (R., Fla.) of “putting people in jeopardy” by attacking his Republican colleagues who were critical of President Trump in the aftermath of the Capitol riot, according to new leaked recordings.

The New York Times recently published audio from a January 10, 2021 meeting of Republican leadership in which McCarthy expressed concern that Gaetz and Representative Mo Brooks (R., Ala.) were endangering the security of other lawmakers and the Capitol complex in the wake of January 6.

The group discussed several other GOP lawmakers who made comments they deemed offensive or dangerous as well, including Representative Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Barry Moore of Alabama.

The country was “too crazy” for the lawmakers to speak or tweet recklessly in the wake of the riots, McCarthy said in the audio obtained in reporting for an upcoming book by New York Times reporters Alexander Burns and Jonathan Martin called This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden and the Battle for America’s Future.

“He’s putting people in jeopardy,” McCarthy said of Gaetz after the Florida Republican appeared on television attacking several Republicans who had criticized Trump. “And he doesn’t need to be doing this. We saw what people would do in the Capitol, you know, and these people came prepared with rope, with everything else.”

Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the No. 2 House Republican, said it was “potentially illegal what he’s doing” during the call.

Gaetz called McCarthy and Scalise “weak men” in a statement on Tuesday responding to the audio.

“While I was protecting President Trump from impeachment, they were protecting Liz Cheney from criticism,” he told the New York Times.

During the call, McCarthy suggested that Brooks had gone even further than Trump had in his rhetoric by addressing the January 6 rally on the National Mall ahead of the riot and urging the group to “fight like hell.”

Brooks told the crowd that it was “the day American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass” as Congress met to certify the electoral votes in the 2020 election.

“You think the president deserves to be impeached for his comments?” McCarthy said. “That’s almost something that goes further than what the president said.”

“Our members have got to start paying attention to what they say, too, and you can’t put up with that,” McCarthy went on to say.

Brooks pushed back against McCarthy’s comments in a statement on Tuesday, noting that he does not recall McCarthy ever speaking with him directly about his speech and that a lawsuit brought against him by a Democratic colleague over the speech had been dismissed in court.

“Kevin McCarthy spoke before knowing the facts,” Brooks said.

It was during that January 10, 2021 phone call with Republican leaders including Scalise, then-House Republican Conference chairwoman Liz Cheney, and Representative Tom Emmer of Minnesota, as well as a number of aides, that McCarthy suggested he would call on Trump to resign, as the New York Times first reported last week.

Cheney is heard in audio released last week asking McCarthy if there is any chance Trump would resign.

“My gut tells me no,” McCarthy responded, according to the audio. “I am seriously thinking about having that conversation with him tonight.”

“The only discussion I would have with him is I think this will pass, and it would be my recommendation that he should resign,” McCarthy says, referring to the impeachment resolution in the House. “That would be my take, but I don’t think he would take it. But I don’t know.” 

Before the audio’s release last week, McCarthy issued a statement disputing Burns and Martin’s reporting.

“The New York Times reporting on me is totally false and wrong. It comes as no surprise that the corporate media is obsessed with doing everything it can to further a liberal agenda,” McCarthy said. “This promotional book tour is no different. If the reporters were interested in truth why would they ask for comment after the book was printed?”