“Well, Kevin, I think these people are more upset about the election than you,” Trump said, according to lawmakers who were briefed by McCarthy afterwards about the call.
McCarthy insisted the rioters were Trump supporters and begged Trump to call them off.
Trump’s comment sparked what Republican lawmakers were familiar with with the call described as a screaming match between the two men. An enraged McCarthy told the president that the rioters were breaking into his office through the windows and asked Trump, “Who do you think you’re talking to?” according to a Republican lawmaker familiar with the call.
The recently revealed details of the call, described to CNN by multiple Republicans who have been briefed on it, provide critical insight into the state of mind of the president as rioters engulfed the Capitol. The existence of the call and some of its details have been previously reported by McCarthy and publicly discussed.
Republican members of Congress said the exchange showed that Trump had no intention of calling off the rioters, even as lawmakers begged him to step in. Many said it amounted to a breach of his presidential duty.
“He’s not an impeccable observer, he rooted them,” said a Republican member of Congress. “On January 13, Kevin McCarthy said on the floor of Parliament that the president is responsible and he is.”
Speaking to the president from the besieged Capitol, McCarthy urged Trump to blow off his supporters and disagreed over who the crowd was. Trump’s comment about the potential insurgents who care more about the election results than McCarthy was first mentioned by Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, a Washington State Republican, in a town hall earlier this week, and was confirmed to CNN by Herrera Beutler and other Republicans inquired about the conversation.
“You have to look at what he did during the uprising to confirm what he was thinking,” Herrera Beutler, one of the 10 House Republicans who voted to oust Trump last month, told CNN. “That line there shows me that either he didn’t care, which is blameworthy, because you can’t allow an attack on your bottom, or he wanted it to happen and he was okay with it, which makes me so angry.”
“We should never stand for that, for whatever reason, under the banner of a party,” she added, expressing her extreme frustration: “I’m doing my very best not to say the F word.”
“I think it appeals to the former president’s mindset,” said Representative Anthony Gonzalez, an Ohio Republican who also voted to impeach Trump last month. He did not regret that his staunchly loyal Vice President or Congress was attacked by the crowd he inspired. It seems he was happy with it or at least enjoying the scenes that most Americans around the world have seen. land atrocious. ”
As senators prepare to determine Trump’s fate, multiple Republicans thought the details of the call were important to the proceedings, believing it to paint a damning portrait of Trump’s lack of action during the attack. At least one of the sources who spoke to CNN made detailed notes of McCarthy’s repetition of the call.
Trump and McCarthy did not respond to requests for comment.
It took Trump hours after the attack began to finally encourage his supporters to “go home in peace” – a tweet that came at the urging of his top employees.
During Trump’s impeachment trial on Friday, his lawyers argued that Trump was in fact trying to calm the rioters with a series of tweets as the attack unfolded. But his lawyers singled out his tweets, focusing on his plea for supporters to “remain peaceful” without mentioning that he also attacked then Vice President Mike Pence and waited hours to explicitly urge rioters out of the Capitol.
A source close to Pence said Trump’s legal team was not telling the truth when attorney Michael van der Veen said during the trial that the then president “at no point” knew his vice president was in danger.
Asked if van der Veen was lying, the source said: “Yes.” Former aides to Pence are still raging over Trump’s actions on Jan. 6, claiming he never checked the vice president because Pence was put out of harm’s way by his U.S. intelligence agency.
It is unclear to what extent these new details were known to House Democratic impeachment managers or whether the team considered calling McCarthy as a witness. The managers have retained the option to call witnesses in the ongoing impeachment lawsuit, although that option remains unlikely as the trial ends.
The House Republican leader was on hand to discuss details of his talks with Trump on and after Jan. 6.
Trump himself has not taken any responsibility in public.
This story has been updated with additional reporting.
CNN’s Jim Acosta contributed to this report.