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House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is known for having contacted Donald Trump as the insurrection occurred on January 6. The House Committee probing the riots has now invited McCarthy to testify before the panel.
McCarthy is the latest congressional Republican who has been invited by the January 6 committee to testify on his knowledge of what might have transpired during the insurrection. The committee’s chair, Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson extended the invitation to McCarthy Wednesday for him to voluntarily testify.
“If he has information he wants to share with us, and is willing to voluntarily come in, I’m not taking the invitation off the table,” Thompson said on ABC News. “If Leader McCarthy has nothing to hide, he can voluntarily come before the committee.”
Thompson also noted that he is also considering sending the House Minority Leader a formal request to testify before the committee. Should Thompson proceed with the formal request, McCarthy would become the third congressional Republican who would be invited to testify. Prior to McCarthy, Reps. Jim Jordan and Scott Perry were formally requested to testify before the committee.
During the Capitol insurrection, McCarthy was revealed to have engaged in a shouting match with the now-former president in a phone call. McCarthy urged Trump at the time to call off his mob of supporters, only for Trump to dismiss his pleas. McCarthy was recently pressed on whether he would cooperate with the request of the committee, to which he said he did not have anything to add to the information that was already present.
“I have been very public but I wouldn’t hide from anything,” said McCarthy.
McCarthy also commemorated the year through a series of photos, notably leaving out the Capitol insurrection, according to Hugo Lowell of The Guardian. It was also noted that McCarthy left out the ongoing pandemic in the 21 photos he picked that represented the year. Only three of the 21 photos showed anyone wearing a mask.
“New: House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy releases twenty-one photos that tell the story of 2021 and of course, not a single one is of the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, the most consequential event of the year,” tweeted Lowell.
