McCarthy Thanking Trump 2 Years After Jan. 6 Was ‘Disgusting’: Ex-GOP Rep.
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Kevin McCarthy’s message of gratitude to former President Donald Trump close to the anniversary of the January 6 Capitol riot was branded as “disgusting” by David Jolly, a former GOP lawmaker.
McCarthy made the comment early Saturday morning, a little after the two-year anniversary of the attack on the Capitol, in the midst of his historically troubled bid to become speaker of the House. The California Republican became the first speaker candidate in a century to fail in the first round of voting, and ultimately needed 15 rounds to secure the position due to holdouts within his own party.
The newly elected House speaker thanked Trump and credited him for helping sway votes his way, during an impromptu news conference that took place a little after midnight on Saturday.
“I do want to especially thank President Trump,” McCarthy said. “What he’s really saying, really for the party, that we have to come together.”
Jolly is a former Florida Republican who previously served in the House of Representatives from 2014 to 2017. A moderate conservative and outspoken critic of Trump, Jolly left the Republican Party in 2018 and now makes appearances as a political analyst on CNN and MSNBC.
Jolly appeared on MSNBC on Saturday where he spoke with host Katie Phang about McCarthy’s struggle for the speakership. During the discussion, the former lawmaker decried the speaker’s comments praising Trump.
“It’s actually a pretty disturbing moment to see Kevin McCarthy coming off the two-year commemoration of January 6 standing in the hall saying ‘thank you’ to Donald Trump for all he’s done for the party,” Jolly said. “Kind of a disgusting moment right there. And it also shows exactly the kind of person Kevin McCarthy is.”
Jolly also noted that the prolonged and divisive speaker election spoke to the fracturing affect that Trump still has on the Republican Party, preventing them from effectively forming coalitions. Democrats, by comparison, remained in lockstep throughout the vote, consistently voting in support of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries for the speakership.
“It is about a coalition, Katie,” Jolly added. “And you can extrapolate this out nationally, what we know going into a presidential race, which is Donald Trump’s power is slipping, but his grip is so tight over the part of the coalition he holds that the party fractures without him. While Democrats have built a coalition in the last six years of disaffected Republicans and independents, joining their cause for healthcare, education, immigration reform, and criminal justice reform, Republicans have built a coalition of insurrectionists, white nationalists, antisemites, and other people who want to tear down the government, and so that’s what we’re seeing on display.”
Newsweek reached out to McCarthy’s office for comment.
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