House Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy was secretly recorded warning that some members of his own caucus might incite violence in the wake of the January 6 insurrection. Among those he named are GOP Reps. Matt Gaetz and Mo Brooks.
“In the phone call with other Republican leaders on Jan. 10, Mr. McCarthy referred chiefly to two representatives, Matt Gaetz of Florida and Mo Brooks of Alabama, as endangering the security of other lawmakers and the Capitol complex,” The New York Times’ Alexander Burns and Jonathan Martin report Tuesday. “But he and his allies discussed several other representatives who made comments they saw as offensive or dangerous, including Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Barry Moore of Alabama.”
The country was “too crazy,” Mr. McCarthy said, for members to be talking and tweeting recklessly at such a volatile moment.
McCarthy said Gaetz was “putting people in jeopardy.”
“And he doesn’t need to be doing this. We saw what people would do in the Capitol, you know, and these people came prepared with rope, with everything else.”
Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the No. 2 House Republican, suggested that Mr. Gaetz might be crossing a legal boundary.
“It’s potentially illegal what he’s doing,” Mr. Scalise said.
“This is serious shit,” he added.
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