House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday slammed Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy for attacking her decision to place metal detectors outside of the House floor despite leaked audio revealing that he feared some of his Republican colleagues would incite violence in the wake of the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The California Democrat’s comments pile on to an already difficult week for the House Republican leadership, which has dealt with a steady drip of audio leaks regarding the Jan. 6 attack and its aftermath, alongside a PR headache surrounding junior Republican firebrand Rep. Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina and a gun found in his luggage as he boarded a plane.
“It was interesting to me that [Mr. McCarthy] talked about the concern … about his members causing danger here and at the same [was] complaining that we have magnetometers to keep guns off the floor of the House,” Mrs. Pelosi said Friday. “It just seemed inconsistent to me, especially with one of his members was seen taking a gun into an airport.”
Mr. McCarthy’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The GOP leader has continued to deal with the fallout from audio leaks from phone calls he had with House Republican leadership days after the Capitol riot, although a closed-door House GOP caucus meeting ended up supporting him.
Earlier this week, the New York Times released a leaked audio recording in which Mr. McCarthy is heard responding to comments Rep. Matt Gaetz, Florida Republican, made following the Capitol riot in which Mr. Gaetz criticized Republicans who criticized President Trump over the events of Jan. 6.
Mr. Trump is “putting people in jeopardy,” Mr. McCarthy is heard saying in the recording, “and he doesn’t need to be doing this. We saw what people would do in the Capitol, you know, and these people came prepared with rope, with everything else.”
In a separate recording, Mr. McCarthy is heard saying that “tension is too high” and that the country is “too crazy” for members to make comments attacking one another, in response to a volley of comments made by Mr. Gaetz as well as Republican Reps. Mo Brooks of Alabama and Lauren Boebert of Colorado.
Mr. McCarthy has been a staunch opponent of members being fined for attempting to bypass the metal detectors put in place outside of the House floor under Mrs. Pelosi’s direction following the Capitol takeover.
Mr. Gaetz has derided the Republican leader for the comments and called Mr. McCarthy and House Republican Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana “weak men,” the Times reported.
Earlier this week Mr. Cawthorn was stopped by a TSA officer at the Charlotte Douglas International Airport after detecting a loaded gun in his carry-on bag. It was the second time Mr. Cawthorn has been stopped by airport security for carrying a firearm.
Mr. Cawthorn was cited for possession of a dangerous weapon, and his gun was confiscated. He was then released.
“I thought you were arrested for that,” Mrs. Pelosi said Friday. “I guess his member was treated differently.”
Mrs. Pelosi declined to respond to a flurry of additional questions about Mr. McCarthy and the recent woes within the Republican conference.
“People have to make a judgment about how the Republicans in Congress hold their members accountable,” she said.