Former President Donald Trump has endorsed House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy ahead of the hearings on the Democrat-led investigation into the Capitol Riot, which will take place later Thursday at 8 pm ET.
“Congressman Kevin McCarthy is an outstanding Representative for the people of California, and a strong and fearless Leader of the House Republican Conference,” Trump said in his June 5 endorsement of the California Republican.
“As Leader, Kevin is building a ‘Commitment to America’ platform to Grow our Economy, Fight Big Tech Censorship, Secure the Border, Strengthen our Military, Defend the Second Amendment, Improve our Health Care, Restore American Energy Independence, Support our Brave Veterans, and Uphold the Rule of Law and American Values,” he continued. “Kevin McCarthy has my Complete and Total Endorsement for California’s 20th Congressional District!”
The endorsement comes after the New York Times reported that McCarthy had contemplated calling on the former president to resign in the wake of the Capitol Riot. Despite a flurry of media reports on the matter, Trump and McCarthy have preserved their friendship, CNN reported.
It also comes as the committee prepares to reveal the results of its investigation during primetime news on Thursday evening, hinting at “disturbing” details previously unknown to the public. As the House minority leader, McCarthy is expected to lead the congressional Republicans in their response to the hearings.
My statement on the New York Times pic.twitter.com/PWi2WkoWzh
— Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) April 21, 2022
Lawmakers on the House’s Jan. 6 committee have hired the former president of ABC News, James Goldston, to promote its findings as a “blockbuster investigative special,” Axios reported. Those results will be aired during primetime on Thursday evening.
Thursday’s hearing will reportedly include both pre-produced videos and live witnesses, according to Axios, as well as the unveiling of never-before-seen official White House photographs of the breach and surveillance footage.
“It is extremely broad. It’s extremely well organized. It’s really chilling,” Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, a Republican, recently told CBS “Sunday Morning,” describing the riot as an “extremely well-organized” conspiracy.
“There will be, I think, substantial evidence that really demonstrates the coordination and the planning and the effort, despite the fact that they understood that Donald Trump lost the election and even once the insurrection began and the violence began, there were ongoing efforts to persuade the former President to stop the violence and call on folks to go home, and he refused to do it,” Democratic Rep. David Cicilline of Rhode Island told CNN on Saturday.
McCarthy and Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH) accused Democrats in late May of “weaponizing” the committee investigating the January 6 Capitol Riot, writing in an op-ed published in The Wall Street Journal that “for House Republican leaders to agree to participate in this political stunt would change the House forever.”
“Every representative in the minority would be subject to compelled interrogations by the majority, under oath, without any foundation of fairness, and at the expense of taxpayers,” they added. “The American people deserve better than Democrats’ weaponization of its majority rule.”
McCarthy and Jordan argued that the committee is “packed” with partisan lawmakers “working behind closed doors and selectively leaking cherry-picked information.”
“With no effective check on its power, the Select Committee is trampling on fundamental Constitutional rights,” they wrote. “It is investigating the political speech of private citizens and demanding access to their personal records and private communications. When disputes over the requests arise, the Committee refuses to engage and seeks to punish.”