Report: Kevin McCarthy, Donald Trump Call Erupted into Expletive-Filled Shouting Match over January 6 Riots

US President Donald Trump speaks on the telephone as he answers calls from people calling
SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images
Sean Moran

A phone call between then-President Donald Trump and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) during the January 6 riots erupted into an expletive-filled shouting match, according to a CNN report released Friday.

While rioters entered the Capitol building, Trump told McCarthy during a call that the rioters cared about election integrity more than the House GOP leader.

“Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are,” Trump said, according to lawmakers familiar with the call.

McCarthy then said that rioters were Trump supporters and urged him to implore them to leave.

Republican lawmakers familiar with the call described the conversation between Trump and McCarthy as a shouting match.

According to GOP lawmakers familiar with the call, as rioters were reportedly breaking into his office through the windows, McCarthy told Trump, “Who the f**k do you think you’re talking to?”

Republican lawmakers said the phone call reveals that Trump did not want to call off the rioters.

“He is not a blameless observer. He was rooting for them,” a GOP lawmaker said. “On January 13, Kevin McCarthy said on the floor of the House that the President bears responsibility and he does.”

This conversation between McCarthy and Trump was first mentioned by Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler during a town hall last week. Herrera Beutler and nine House Republicans voted to impeach Trump in January.

“That line right there demonstrates to me that either he didn’t care, which is impeachable, because you cannot allow an attack on your soil, or he wanted it to happen and was OK with it, which makes me so angry,” Herrera Beutler told CNN.

“We should never stand for that, for any reason, under any party flag,” she said.

“To the patriots who were standing next to the former president as these conversations were happening, or even to the former vice president: if you have something to add here, now would be the time,” Herrera Beutler said in a statement on Friday, urging others to divulge more information they might know about the conversations between then-Vice President Mike Pence and Trump on January 6.

The Senate voted Saturday to call for additional witnesses during the impeachment trial. It remains likely the Senate will subpoena Beutler and have her testify for the trial.

Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.

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