Cheddar politics at Baker Machado in New York.
We've been hearing some new tidbits since the
House Committee that's investigating the January six insurrection
since it was impaneled.
The latest controversy now comes after audio was leaked of minority
leader Kevin McCarthy contradicting many of his public statements on January six
that on a call with other Republican leadership,
she's joining us now to talk about the latest in the investigation is Anthony a
dragon to a reporter with politico that covers
Congress Anthony good to have you here.
Thanks so much for joining us.
Now,
Kevin McCarthy faced republicans for the first
time since that audio leaked on friday.
And the sentiment from the audio really sort of sounded very familiar
to a lot of the opinions that lost Liz Cheney her leadership position.
But you guys are political reporting.
Kevin McCarthy got a standing ovation from the caucus in that meeting.
So I guess the larger question is,
how has Kevin McCarthy been able to weather this storm so far
republicans are really focused on on winning back the
majority in the midterms and the the message,
they feel good.
They feel like the momentum is at their backs.
And so I think the push here that we saw is really to unite around that message,
United around the idea of winning back the majority leader.
McCarthy has certainly been very focused on that he's
trying to urge his members to sort of move beyond
the the insurrection
and to remain focused on on winning back this majority.
So,
I think that's been the consistent message
from republicans this week and certainly,
you know, the republicans that we surveyed, my colleagues and I surveyed, um,
are focused on that effort.
And so that's led them to sort of rally around the
flag if you will with leader McCarthy despite these comments.
How much also is the fact that Kevin McCarthy
is fundraising gobs of money right now for republicans?
I mean, I just saw a report the other day,
one super pac that's tied to him has brought in
over $100 million just in house for the house races.
Um, so how much of that, just the money aspect here is also saving Kevin McCarthy.
I mean, there's no question these sums are just absolutely staggering.
And I think it's, you know,
it's a lot easier to get people focused on sort of looking forward in
the future as you're raising money as you're playing in some of these races.
That, um, they've really expanded the map,
they feel good about taking on a number of Democratic incumbents.
There's obviously been a lot of retirements as well.
So certainly there's no question that as you're raising money,
that definitely helps get people to rally around you
despite these comments, Breaking with the former president Anthony, I mean,
also let's talk about the former president here, the fact that donald trump,
if anything, didn't condemn Kevin McCarthy based off of these tapes whatsoever.
I think that was sort of the shoe we thought all was gonna drop here.
What does that sort of say about president
trump's maybe stranglehold on the GOP given the
fact that he and kevin McCarthy seemed to
still have a great relationship after this.
Yeah, I was a little surprised by that as well.
Obviously as you're alluding to the former president
certainly is is not one to forget easily.
Um but I think it really speaks to the fact that republicans really
do feel like they're heading into a really positive midterm environment and again,
they feel like these sorts of distractions.
McCarthy obviously has in the time since then made clear,
Broken with the comments that he made on the tapes.
So I think there really is people trying to move beyond this.
Another another thing we've heard from rank and file Republicans,
it's just they're not they're not hearing this when they go home.
The insurrection, January six is not a big issue. It's not a major focus of voters.
And so I think that also helps them sort of be
able to move past some of these more recent comments,
let's move now to the committee
investigating January six because the text messages
that we've been getting over the course of the last couple of weeks,
mainly the ones from Marjorie, Taylor Greene are sort of really interesting,
mainly the marjorie Taylor Greene text where she's alluding to President trump
in a text to Mark Meadows the Chief of staff at the time
to invoke martial law when it came to the 2020 election,
essentially President trump to basically utilize the National Guard to
seize voting machines and all these other sorts of things
marjorie, taylor Greene by the way,
she's now saying she doesn't recall any of those statements.
But what does that sort of tell you about what the committee is investigating
here is Martial law sort of the next area they're sort of targeting here.
That's a good question.
I think what it says is, you know, certainly from from her perspective,
she is echoing in in private what she's been saying mostly publicly.
I think this is something that the committee
is definitely going to continue to explore.
I think one of the interesting things about the committee is
as much of their work is being done in public.
We really don't know what they're doing, the entire scope of it behind closed doors.
So I think there are a lot of potential threads including the Martial law example,
that they could be focused on.
And we're going to have to wait until they reveal more of their findings publicly,
to really know all the avenues that they've gone down and explored.
And I'm glad you mentioned that because there is
another theory and thought process out there that all of
these leaks maybe are damaging this committee because then all
of a sudden if they have these public hearings,
the public already knows a lot of the damning evidence here.
So in many ways do you feel like the leaks are hurting the committee here?
I think that's a really interesting and crucial point.
There's no question that the whole idea behind this was to have, you know,
a very stage managed public reveal, outlining their findings,
outlining the most damning evidence and these text messages.
Certainly you would have thought would be would have been a key part of that.
Um so I think that's been really interesting in seeing sort
of as these have come out in dribs and drabs.
Um you know, again, we don't know exactly what they found what more they may have.
Um, but there's no question that this, you know,
it feels almost like the Mueller report, if you will, where, you know,
some of the evidence came out,
it was all kind of hiding there and maybe that impacts the ability to have
a compelling public presentation and to really capture
the eyes and minds of the american people
given how many distractions there are in an
unrelenting news cycle these days.
I think the Mueller report is is so far at least an apt comparison here,
at least until we figure out exactly what's happening in these committees.
And we should note Bennie Thompson who chairs the committee is
saying that they possibly the public hearings would take place in june
Anthony a dragon, a congressional reporter at politico Anthony.
Thank you so much for joining us