House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy has agreed to debrief the conservative Republican Study Committee on Wednesday about his role in drafting Speaker John Boehner’s conservative purge secret scorecard criteria list, a congressman close to the situation told Breitbart News Tuesday evening.
Kansas Republican Rep. Tim Huelskamp said in an interview that McCarthy has agreed to explain to the conservative members of the House his role in drafting the scorecard used to purge conservative House members from their committee assignments.
“They’ve requested McCarthy to come tomorrow to RSC to explain his scorecard,” Huelskamp told Breitbart News. “I’ve seen the stories about ‘McCarthyism’ and it is his scorecard. Who put it together and how? What’s on it? That’s what we’re trying to get a hold of.”
“He [McCarthy] told [RSC Chairman Rep.] Jim Jordan he’d show up at RSC tomorrow,” Huelskamp added. “He said he would come. But, until he shows up, we’ll see. If he doesn’t show up, he’ll have to answer to Jim Jordan about misleading him. But I hope he shows up. They still don’t have the guts to release the scorecard.”
Spokespeople for Jordan and McCarthy haven’t responded to Breitbart News’ request for comment on this news. Breitbart News first reported Monday evening that, according to a GOP source, McCarthy had drafted the secret scorecard of criteria used in the purge.
He also told Breitbart News that there was another closed-door House GOP Steering Committee meeting on Tuesday.
“Apparently, there was another secret closed-door meeting of the Steering Committee sometime today,” Huelskamp said, adding that there’s “no official news from that.”
“I’m starting to get a bad feeling all over again,” Huelskamp continued. “We had a closed-door meeting between [President Barack] Obama and Boehner in July or August and that turned out really bad for Republicans but for the country too – we had a downgrade. They had a recent meeting behind closed doors again where they started purging conservatives.
“This is not 1960 all over again. This is not Speaker [Joseph Gurney] Cannon [who used unprecedented power during his tenure atop the lower chamber of Congress] running the House again. Folks deserve answers and today’s Internet, Facebook and Twitter – they’re going to say ‘where’s the secret scorecard?'”
Huelskamp said, “there were more than the few of us” who were purged who the Speaker retaliated against for being conservative. “There were folks who didn’t get committee chairmanships, there was one who didn’t get a committee chairmanship because he was too pro-life, there are folks who didn’t move up, there are folks who didn’t get what they requested.”