In late July, Politico reported that Donald Trump and then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy spoke regularly, and there was one subject the former president brought up “in every call.”
The focus of Trump’s preoccupation was a series of votes he wanted to see on the House floor: He wanted McCarthy to bring up resolutions that would “expunge” the former president’s impeachments.
We now know, of course, that there were no such votes — though McCarthy offered some public support for the idea, and floor action was a distinct possibility. Did this have anything to do with Trump’s silence as McCarthy’s grip on the speaker’s gavel slipped away?
Evidently, yes. The Washington Post reported on a previously undisclosed phone conversation between the two Republicans.
During a phone call with McCarthy weeks after his historic Oct. 3 removal as House speaker, Trump detailed the reasons he had declined to ask Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and other hard-right lawmakers to back off their campaign to oust the California Republican from his leadership position. … During the call, Trump lambasted McCarthy for not expunging his two impeachments and endorse him in the 2024 presidential campaign, according to people familiar with the conversation.
According to the report, McCarthy replied to the former president, “F— you.”
Some caveats are in order. For one thing, the reporting has not been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News. For another, McCarthy might very well have told associates that he gave Trump a piece of his mind, but whether the California congressman was as tough as he claimed remains an open question.
But if the Post’s reporting is accurate, it sheds light on a notable perspective.
McCarthy went to amazing lengths to curry favor with Trump — the Starbursts story remains one of my favorites — and during his term, the then-president was so appreciative of the fawning attention that he referred to the future House speaker as “my Kevin.”
As we’ve…
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