McCarthy said Trump should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw the violence unfolding. 13, 2021, just before the Democratic-led House voted to impeach Trump over the insurrection, McCarthy said that “ the president bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob rioters.” HOUSE GOP LEADER KEVIN MCCARTHY, R-CALIF. The rioters, echoing Trump’s falsehoods about widespread fraud in the election, temporarily stopped the certification of Joe Biden’s presidential victory.Ī few Republicans have consistently criticized Trump, putting their own political future in peril.Ī look at comments from key Republicans in the year-and-a half since the attack as the House committee investigating the riot prepares to begin public hearings Thursday night. Others went further, with some Republican lawmakers defending the rioters or playing down the violence of the mob that beat police officers and smashed its way into the Capitol. Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy, who had said in the hours after the attack that it had been “the saddest day I have ever had serving as a member of this institution,” went on to visit Trump at his Florida home only weeks after the riot.
Some even blamed then-President Donald Trump.īut the larger GOP narrative shifted in the weeks and months that followed. WASHINGTON (AP) - Most every Republican lawmaker expressed outrage in the days after the insurrection at the U.S.