House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) told reporters on Friday that he does not remember talking to Cassidy Hutchinson on Jan. 6 even though the former White House aide testified under oath about her conversation with him that day.
During a hearing last month before the select committee investigating the Capitol riot, Hutchinson said she received a call from an angry McCarthy after Trump said he would join his supporters and march to the Capitol as Congress was certifying Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election.
“The president just said he’s marching to the Capitol. You told me this whole week you aren’t coming up here, why would you lie to me?’” McCarthy said, according to Hutchinson.
After Hutchinson told McCarthy that Trump was not going to the Capitol, he replied: “Well, he just said it on stage. Cassidy. Figure it out, don’t come up here.”
On Friday McCarthy, who has refused to cooperate with the committee’s subpoena for his records and sworn testimony regarding the Capitol riot, told reporters that he does not remember speaking to Hutchinson on Jan. 6.
“I don’t recall talking to her that day … if I talked to her, I don’t remember it. If it was coming up here, I don’t think I wanted a lot of people coming up to the Capitol. But I don’t remember the conversation,” he said
McCarthy also claimed he didn’t watch Trump’s speech because he was “working”, adding “I didn’t see what went on, until after the fact.”
McCarthy has previously said he spoke with Trump on Jan. 6 and urged him to get his supporters out of the Capitol. He also said Trump admitted to him that he bears some responsibility for the attack.
Despite this, McCarthy opposed efforts to form an independent commission to investigate the attack even though he initially supported that idea, and he threatened private companies to not comply with the Jan. 6 committee’s request to preserve documents relating of the attack. McCarthy vowed that Republicans will “not forget” if they comply, implying that a Republican controlled House will retaliate against companies that complied with a congressional subpoena.
