WATCH: “I Don’t Recall…” Kevin McCarthy Won’t Directly Refute Cassidy Hutchinson’s Testimony
Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony to the January 6th Committee was apparently devastating to Donald Trump and his allies, judging by how hard they’ve worked to contradict it. However, for all their contradictions, no one seems willing to issue a denial under oath — and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy wasn’t even willing to directly dispute her testimony about him in response to a press question.
On January 6th, Hutchinson says that McCarthy called her. He’d heard that Trump told his rally crowd that he would be joining them at the Capitol Building, and he exhorted her again to make efforts to prevent the then-president from doing so. Hutchinson said that this discussion had been ongoing throughout the week.
When pressed, McCarthy finds a convenient fence to straddle — he insists that he doesn’t remember speaking to Hutchinson at all, and that he didn’t know Trump was planning to come to the Capitol, and that he doesn’t recall conversations about any of the above — but he will not explicitly deny it.
.@mkraju asks about former White House aid Cassidy Hutchinson testifying @January6thCmte that McCarthy told her not to have President Trump come to the U.S. Capitol.
.@GOPLeader McCarthy "I don't recall talking to her that day…if I talked to her, I don't remember it." pic.twitter.com/l9F0NCqnJl
— CSPAN (@cspan) July 29, 2022
“I don’t recall talking to her that day. I recall talking to Dan Scavino, I recall talking to Jared, I recall talking to Trump…if I talked to her I don’t remember it. If it was, coming up here, I don’t think I wanted a lot of people coming to the Capitol, but I don’t remember the conversation.”
Regarding Trump, McCarthy says that he “never communicated with him about coming to the Capitol, I had no idea he would come to the Capitol, I had no idea that he was even going to come to the Capitol. That’s news to me.”
It would seem as though a person who was actually certain that he didn’t know Trump was planning to come to the Capitol could also be completely sure that he didn’t call anyone and urge her to prevent that event — but McCarthy would not issue such a firm denial of a call with Hutchinson.
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