More tapes of Kevin McCarthy's private conversations with House Republicans after the January 6th insurrection have been released as controvesy continues to surround the GOP leader.
In the latest batch of audio, which was played on CNN on Friday morning, McCarthy said what Trump did on the day of insurrection was 'unacceptable' and that no Republican should have to defend the then-president's actions.
'I know this is not fun. I know this is not great. I know this is very tough, but what I want to do, especially through here is, I don't want to rush things. Want everybody to have all the information needed. I've had it with this guy. What he did is unacceptable. Nobody can defend that, and nobody should defend it,' McCarthy said on a phone call with a small group of House Republicans on January 10th, 2021.
The next day, in a call with the larger GOP House Conference, McCarthy said Trump 'bears responsiblities for his words and actions' on January 6th.
He also said Trump told him that 'he does have some responsibility' for what happened.
'Let me be very clear to all of you, and I am very clear to the president. He bears responsibilities for his words and actions, no IFS, ands, or buts. I asked him personally today, does he hold responsibility for what happened? Does he feel bad about what happened? He told me he does have some responsibility for what happened. And he needed to acknowledge that,' he said.
More tapes of Kevin McCarthy's private conversations with House Republicans after the January 6th insurrection have been released
In latest batch of audio, played on CNN, Kevin McCarthy said Donald Trump told him he bore some responsibility for what happened on Jan. 6th - above Trump at a rally outside the White House on the morning of Jan. 6th, before his supporters marched on Capitol
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It remains to be seen how much the tapes damage McCarthy's desire to be speaker if Republicans win control of the House in the midterm election, as they are favored to do.
Much of McCarthy's fate is likely tied to Trump's reaction.
Trump and McCarthy spoke on Thursday night after the first round of audio tapes came out, The Washington Post reported.
Those tapes were released by authors Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns, who dropped a bombshell in the New York Times on Thursday from their new book 'This Will Not Pass.'
Their report revealed that, in the wake of the MAGA supporters storming the Capitol, McCarthy said Trump should resign as president.
McCarthy denied saying it. The tapes, which were played on MSNBC, showed that he did.
Trump was not upset about McCarthy's remarks on the tapes and was glad the Republican leader didn't follow through, which Trump saw as a sign of his continued grip on the Republican Party, sources told The Post of the two men's conversation.
Their conversation was before the new audio was played on CNN on Friday morning in which McCarthy claimed Trump told him he bore some responsibility for the insurrection.
Martin told CNN that McCarth's comments were 'going to be news to President Trump, wherever he is today.'
The two authors have said they have more tapes in their possession.
Trump has yet to make a public statement on the matter. But some Republicans close to him have publicly criticized McCarthy since the audio was released.
Steve Bannon, a former Trump White House adviser, said on his podcast on Friday of the McCarthy audio: 'Right there you're hearing all the money, all the leadership in the Republican Party, how they plot, in probably Trump's weakest moment, when the whole world turned against him.'
And Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, who is very close to Trump, tweeted on Friday morning: 'While I was rallying in Wyoming against Liz Cheney… Kevin McCarthy was defending Liz Cheney among House Republicans… While Liz Cheney was secretly recording Kevin McCarthy for the New York Times. @GOPLeader - you should have trusted my instincts, not your own,' he wrote.
Cheney denied she leaked a tape of McCarthy's conversations.
'The select committee has asked Kevin McCarthy to speak with us about these events but he has so far declined. Representative Cheney did not record or leak the tape and does not know how the reporters got it,' a spokesperson for her said.
Martin and Burns were on Rachel Maddow's MSNBC show on Thursday night to play tapes that backed up their reporting on McCarthy's comments.
In the recording of a January 10 House Republican Leadership call, McCarthy is heard discussing the Democratic effort to remove Trump from office via an impeachment resolution. He said he would tell Trump, 'I think it will pass and it would be my recommendation he should resign.'
Earlier Thursday, McCarthy tore into Martin and Burn's report.
'The New York Times' reporting on me is totally false and wrong,' the House Republican leader wrote in a statement tweeted out on Thursday with the caption 'My statement on the New York Times'.
Rep. Liz Cheney denies she leaked audio of a call to New York Times reporters in which House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy says he'll pressure former President Donald Trump to resign in the aftermath of the January 6 Capitol attack
THE RECEIPTS: On Thursday night's Rachel Maddow Show, the MSNBC host played a clip of a conversation between House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Rep. Liz Cheney. In it, McCarthy says what was reported in a forthcoming
