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       McCarthy recorded saying Trump accepted ‘some responsibility’ for Jan 6 riot

       A newly released audio recording from January 2021 features House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy telling Republican members that Donald Trump “bears responsibility for his words and actions” around the 6 January riot – and that the then-president told him “he does have some responsibility for what happened”.

       Mr McCarthy yesterday denied a New York Times report that said he had considered urging Mr Trump to step down in the aftermath of the riot – but not long after his statement was put out, audio of that conversation was released, confirming that the report was accurate and that Mr McCarthy’s denial was false.

       Liz Cheney’s office has denied leaking the earlier recording of a discussion between the congresswoman and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy in which the two discussed whether Donald Trump should resign after the events of 6 January 2021.

       On the recording, Mr McCarthy tells Ms Cheney – now a member of the 6 January committee – that he would suggest Mr Trump resign from office in the face of a looming impeachment.

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       Show latest update 1650642941 Flashback: Kevin McCarthy’s Benghazi gaffe

       Back in late 2015, House Republicans – then in the majority – were embarked on an extremely aggressive effort to hold Hillary Clinton accountable for the deadly attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi in Libya, which saw several Americans killed. The effort did not ultimately derail Ms Clinton’s campaign, even after an 11-hour hearing, but many Republican leaders were at pains to insist that the inquiry was not just a political ploy.

       Kevin McCarthy, however, blew that argument up when he told an interviewer that the committee had succeeded in tarnishing Ms Clinton’s image, and that that was what it was intended to achieve.

       “Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right? But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping. Why? Because she’s untrustable. But no one would have have known any of that had happened had we not fought and made that happen.”

       The incident led to Mr McCarthy, then majority leader, losing his position as the natural successor to John Boehner as speaker, a position that instead went to Paul Ryan.

       Kevin McCarthy: Benghazi Committee Tanked Hillary’s Poll Numbers

       Andrew Naughtie 22 April 2022 16:55

       1650641223 Report: Trump and McCarthy discuss leaked audio

       While neither Kevin McCarthy nor Donald Trump have yet commented publicly on the recordings of Mr McCarthy that have emerged in the last 24 hours, the Washington Post reports that last night – before the latest audio recording dropped – the two men discussed the unflattering audio by phone.

       Trump, according to these people, was not upset about McCarthy’s remarks and was glad the Republican leader didn’t follow through, which Trump saw as a sign of his continued grip on the Republican Party. They spoke of the private conversation on the condition of anonymity.

       But House Republicans are still waiting for a firm statement from Trump, according to multiple GOP aides, on how to determine whether they should still back McCarthy as their current leader and potential speaker if the GOP regains the majority in the November election.

       Read the full report below.

       Andrew Naughtie 22 April 2022 16:27

       1650639085 McCarthy said Trump accepted “some responsibility” for riot, new audio reveals

       Another piece of incendiary audio has been released showing Kevin McCarthy in an unflattering light.

       On this recording – which comes from a Republican conference call five days after the riot – the leader says that he had confronted Mr Trump about the insurrection and asked him if he accepted responsibility for it. Crucially, he then says the president in fact did accept some culpability, a claim that if true would profoundly disrupt the pro-Trump line on how the riot came about.

       Andrew Naughtie 22 April 2022 15:51

       1650635674 Matt Gaetz piles on Kevin McCarthy

       The right-wing attacks on Kevin McCarthy appear to have begun. Congressman Matt Gaetz, the hardcore Florida Republican currently facing a sex trafficking investigation, has tweeted out a message to his boss shaming him for his disloyalty to the former president and boasting of his personal campaign against Liz Cheney.

       Mr Gaetz has previously mooted the idea of making Donald Trump speaker of the House if and when Republicans take it back, but Mr Trump himself has nixed the idea.

       Trump pours cold water on House speaker idea floated by Matt Gaetz Former president says he isn’t interested while leaving door open for 2024 ambitions

       Andrew Naughtie 22 April 2022 14:54

       1650633754 Report: Trump chief of staff was registered to vote in three states

       In the aftermath of the 2020 election, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows was one of Donald Trump’s key outriders in the effort to overturn the result based on false claims of massive voter fraud. It has since transpired that he himself was registered to vote in North Carolina despite not living there – and now, the Washington Post reports that he may in fact have appeared on three states’ voter rolls at once.

       Voter-list maintenance is one of the dividing lines in American politics. Republicans argue that if voter-registration records are not regularly purged and updated, election fraud can take place. Democrats push back that too many voter-list purges are conducted haphazardly, removing eligible voters who don’t learn they are no longer listed until they show up to vote.

       Now it turns out that until last week, Meadows was simultaneously registered to vote in three different states — North Carolina, Virginia and South Carolina — according to state records obtained by The Fact Checker.

       The overlap lasted about three weeks, and it might have continued if revelations about Meadows’s voting record had not attracted scrutiny in North Carolina. Meadows is still registered in Virginia and South Carolina.

       This is the latest in a series of revelations about election-related behavior by Meadows that appear to contradict his and his party’s rhetoric on election integrity.

       Read the report below.

       Andrew Naughtie 22 April 2022 14:22

       1650632224 Trumpist Ohio candidate mocks publication he wrote for many times

       JD Vance, the Trump-critic-turned-acolyte who has won the former president’s endorsement in the Ohio senate race, has lit into Barack Obama after the latter warned about the poisoning of the public spehere by right-wing extremists.

       In response, Atlantic regular Yascha Mounck had this to say:

       Mr Vance, whose campaign has taken on an exceptionally aggressive tone, has been endorsed by Mr Trump despite once saying he threatened to become “America’s Hitler”.

       Andrew Naughtie 22 April 2022 13:57

       1650629612 Trump jumps to defend “very popular” Marjorie Taylor Greene

       As Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene prepares to testify under oath in a lawsuit that could see her banned from holding public office, Donald Trump has put out a statement defending his extreme supporter – and blaming the action against her on Georgia officials who refused to endorse his claim that the 2020 election was stolen.

       Here’s the text of his statement:

       The Governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp, and Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, perhaps in collusion with the Radical Left Democrats, have allowed a horrible thing to happen to a very popular Republican, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. She is now going through hell in their attempt to unseat her, just more of an election mess in Georgia, including the fact that they will still allow easily corruptible Ballot Boxes for all to cheat with, and have not been able to get a little thing called “Signature Verification” approved. Unlike other Republicans, this Governor does everything possible to hurt the voting process in Georgia, including his approval of a disastrous Consent Decree, and not calling a Special Session that was requested by Georgia’s Republicans Senators. He absolutely refused. Both of those failures were a disaster for the Republican Party, and for our Country. Even the “True the Vote” people, great patriots, who will soon announce massive Ballot Harvesting in Georgia and other States, said Kemp was the worst of all Governors to deal with—he didn’t want to do anything to help with finding this massive Ballot Harvesting fraud. Brian Kemp should be voted out of office—vote for David Perdue. REMEMBER, Brian Kemp will never be able to win the General Election against Stacey “The Hoax” Abrams because a large number of Republicans just will not vote for him.

       You can follow today’s hearing in the Greene case on our dedicated live blog. And Nathan Place has more on the case below.

       Lawyer says Marjorie Taylor Greene used ‘codeword’ to encourage Capitol riot ‘The day before the attack, she signaled to her followers a codeword that meant to storm federal buildings and supposedly overthrow tyrants,’ says Ron Fein, the lawyer who will question Ms Greene

       Andrew Naughtie 22 April 2022 13:13

       1650627634 Statement from Liz Cheney on McCarthy tape

       As the fallout from the leaked Kevin McCarthy recording continues to spread, the office of Liz Cheney has issued a statement on the provenance of the audio – and the congresswoman, who was part of the House Republican leadership at the time of the recorded conversation, has essentially washed her hands of it.

       Andrew Naughtie 22 April 2022 12:40

       1650625589 Trumps turn on leading Ohio Senate candidate

       Having backed Hillbilly Elegy author JD Vance in the all-important Ohio Senate primary, Donald Trump and his son Donald Jr are turning their fire on one of the leading Republican candidates: Josh Mandel, who has been running an extremely aggressive right-wing campaign as he chases after the nomination.

       In particular, the younger Trump is going after Mr Mandel for his previous connections to the Republican establishment, sharing video of him hobnobbing with the likes of Mitt Romney and John McCain – both sworn enemies of the Trump clan.

       As the New York Times’s Maggie Haberman reports, things are approaching the point where the former president’s son may take the unusual step of formally opposing Mr Mandel, who so far has been a far stronger contender for the nomination than Mr Vance.

       Andrew Naughtie 22 April 2022 12:06

       1650624002 Two men plead guilty in Bannon-linked border wall scam

       Two men have pleaded guilty in a long-running wire fraud case related to We Build The Wall, a fundraising group co-founded by Trump advisor and far-right instigator Steve Bannon.

       Mr Bannon was pardoned by the former president for his part in the crowdfunding effort, whose donations were siphoned off for personal use by staff. However, Mr Trump was only able to pardon him on the federal charges he faced; he is still under investigation for state-level offences.

       Sravasti Dasgupta has the story.

       Two men plead guilty to border wall fundraising scam that Trump pardoned Bannon for Organisers had raised almost $25m and promised all donations would go to pay for border wall project

       Andrew Naughtie 22 April 2022 11:40

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