President Joe Biden slammed the Republican Party on Friday after newly disclosed audiotapes revealed that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy privately suggested he'd ask Donald Trump to resign over the Capitol violence on January 6. McCarthy has denied making remarks on the tapes that have now been exposed.
McCarthy was caught blasting Trump after the Capitol brawl last year and told Republican senators that he would urge Trump to resign, according to audiotapes obtained by New York Times reporters Alexander Burns and Jonathan Martin.
Biden Takes Shots at GOP, Trump
According to the tape, McCarthy informed his fellow Republican colleagues on January 11, 2021 that Trump had privately suggested he had some blame for the disturbance. McCarthy's vocal support for and commitment to Trump immediately after the Capitol incident and since the previous president left office appears to be contradicted by the recording.
McCarthy has subsequently paid a visit to Trump at his Mar-a-Lago club in West Palm Beach, Florida, and has defended him against Republican accusations. In his speech, Biden addressed what he saw as a dread that has spread throughout the GOP as a result of Trump's stranglehold on the party, Insider reported.
The Republican leader added on the audio that Trump was unlikely to heed to his proposal and that "nobody can defend" Trump's behavior on January 6 "and nobody should defend it."
McCarthy allegedly labeled Trump's behavior on January 6 "atrocious and absolutely wrong" in a call with Republicans on January 8 and also discussed the notion of banning some politicians from using social media, according to the New York Times.
McCarthy is the Republican front-runner to become Speaker of the House if Republicans retake the House in November, which will be decided by congressional elections. Elections for Speaker of the House usually take place on the first day of a new Congress, January 3; so if the leak was intended to derail McCarthy's bid for speaker, it occurred too soon.
POTUS Calls GOP a MAGA, "Not Your Father's"
Biden made the remarks in front of a gathering of Democratic leaders at an outdoor Earth Day event in Seattle, where he also defended his own caucus against allegations of internal splits. Senators Kysten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia were among those who voted against his Build Back Better plan.
He went on to say that there are 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans in the house. " Isn't it true that everyone may change the dynamic? 'It's a shame," Biden added. Although he didn't say it, it's a DC cliché that every senator considers themselves a presidential candidate, as per Fox News.
Joe Biden was speaking at an Earth Day event where he signed an order aimed at 'Strengthening the Nation's Forests, Communities, and Local Economies.' Following the extraordinary developments in Tallahassee, Biden used some of the same lines - calling the GOP a 'MAGA' party and "not your father's" - which is itself a reference to a decades-old Oldsmobile ad.
That episode saw the GOP-controlled legislature vote to take away a substantial tax break from Disney, with prominent individuals publicly claiming that they were doing so as retaliation for the company's opposition to a law known as "don't say gay."
In addresses at two Democratic fundraisers on the West Coast, Biden lambasted "ugly" Republicans for targeting Disney and said the GOP had been taken over by the "far right."
Per Daily Mail, the president attacked Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' conflict with Disney over the company's resistance to the so-called on teaching sex and gender in schools, saying the GOP is "not even conservative in the classic sense of conservatism.
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