Former Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO), now a political contributor for NBC News, said Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Deadline” that House Minority leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was a “toad” because he knew former President Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election.

However, she said he was supporting Trump’s claims to the contrary while rejecting Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) “telling the truth.”

Anchor Nicolle Wallace said, “The danger to the country isn’t that the Republican Party has lost the way. The danger to the country is that the litmus test that…intersects with the domestic threat warning. It is in line with the ideology of those who represent the gravest threat to the homeland. So it is not just a cult around Donald Trump. It is around the lie that must be told so that he doesn’t look like the loser he is. And then that lie also intersects with the same ideology that threatens the homeland.”

McCaskill said, “When you allow an extreme fringe to take over your party, and emboldened by the fact that they’re supposed to lie, it is really not a good prescription for power going forward. It may feel good today for them to reject Liz Cheney and her telling the truth of what happened on January 6 and what really happened on the first Tuesday in November, but you know, I’m trying to think what Mitt Romney must feel like coming back to the Senate after that.”

She added, “What is really the failure of the Republican Party right now are the elected officials that have allowed the extreme fringe to become…the beating heart of the Republican Party.”

Wallace said, “We should name names, Claire. Mitch McConnell… He gave a speech calling for Donald Trump to be criminally prosecuted after voting to acquit him for inciting an insurrection that he suggested he believed he had done when he suggested criminal prosecution. So I mean, just say more. What is it like? When these guys are all talking out of both sides of their mouth, say for Mitt Romney and Liz Cheney?”

McCaskill said, “First of all Chris Christie should lead a choir of all the people talking out of both sides of their mouth. I’m dizzy between him and Nikki Haley and can’t decide what the hell they’re talking about on any given day. But you know really think about this toad Kevin McCarthy. He said that he knew that Donald Trump was refusing to call on his supporters to stand down on that day. He knew what — he knows what Donald Trump did that day. He knows that Donald Trump lost this election. How hollowed out must you be that you’re willing to do what he’s doing to try to get power? It is really a sad and pathetic excuse for a leader.”

Wallace said, “Claire, you calling Kevin McCarthy a toad is the best thing that’s happened since I’ve been on TV in a very long time. Don’t they all know kept except for the QAnon lady? Don’t they all know that it’s all a lie?

McCaskill said, “Oh yeah, yeah. They all know especially if you look at the senators.”

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