House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R. Calif.) feared that the comments from some members of the Republican caucus would incite further violence against lawmakers after Jan. 6. Among those he named was Rep. Matt Gaetz who McCarthy said was “putting people in jeopardy”.
According on the audio of a Jan. 10 phone call with Republican leadership Gaetz and Alabama congressman Mo Brooks were the prime targets of the leaders’ private ire.
The audio was published by The New York Times’ Alexander Burns and Jonathan Martin on Tuesday. Both are co-authors of the forthcoming book This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden and the Battle for America’s Future.
Brooks spoke at the rally that preceded the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6 and used incendiary language.
Gaetz attack multiple Republicans who had criticized Trump on national TV after Jan. 6 including Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, a former member of the leadership team, according to The New York Times.
“These members calling out other members, that stuff’s got to stop,” McCarthy can be heard saying in a Jan. 10 recording. The tension is too high. The country is too crazy. I do not want to look back and think we caused something.”
“He’s putting people in jeopardy,” McCarthy said of Gaetz. “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.”
House minority Whip Steve Scalise suggested that what Gaetz is doing “could potentially be illegal,” adding “this is serious shit.”
