How Come We're Just Finding Out About This McCarthy Conference Call Now....

[global1]

Liz Cheney - whom we all here have hailed her courage for defying the Repug Party and joining the J6 Committee - was in on this call and knew about the feelings of McCarthy & McConnell at the time and even knew about the discussion they had about the 25th Amendment.

Why hadn't she made this information available to us before? Why is this info just coming out now?

I really think she needs to be subject to questions by the rest of the J6 Committee about this. And what about Kinzinger? Wasn't he in on the same conference call? Didn't he have knowledge about this as well?

The other question I have is - what changed within the Repug Party. They seemed to be so intent on laying the blame on TFG at the time - and - what happened that changed their minds to instead of punishing TFG - to stick behind him and back the 'Big Lie'? Was it something that TFG told them when he was encountered by them?

Given the fact that this was a conference call to the bulk of the Repug Party at the time - aren't they all accessories to this coup plot now? Didn't they all become accessories to TFG's and his henchmen's scheme to change the outcome of the election of Biden?

I'd like to hear DU'ers opinion of these questions I have posed here.

[madaboutharry]

1. I would think the entire J6 committee has had this recording all along.

Not everything they has been made public. They probably just decided to release the tape.

[agingdem]

4. As does the DOJ...

and Burns and Martin are about to release their book...bombshell teasers strategically released guarantee a #1 best seller...

[AZSkiffyGeek]

5. I wonder how much coordination went on

NYT releases their report. McCarthy denies it. Maddow is ready and releases the tape. I picture Liz Cheney in a trench coat meeting Maddow in a dark parking garage exchanging the tape.
Even if Cheney wasn't directly responsible, she will definitely benefit from this.

Regardless who did it, this is some exciting journalism and seriously machiavellian politics.

[sop]

2. Obviously, Trump threatened them, but with what?

I suspect he threatened them with everything, from being primaried to airing all their dirty laundry, if they didn't fall in line.

[Raven123]

3. An after the coup call does not make them complicit with the coup.

If no one thought the call was recorded, any assertions of it’s content would have been pointless

[lucca18]

6. This certainly would have helped during the impeachment trial.

I don’t get it.
Why wait?
Why now?

Our democracy is hanging by a thread.

[LonePirate]

7. "Journalists" think it's more important to break news in a published book instead of as it happens.

The American press is profoundly broken. Both the journalist in the case (Jonathan Martin, I think) and his employer, The New York Times, should have to answer for why this saved for his book and was not reported sooner. He's like the third or fourth (at least) reporter for TNYT who has saved important news for their book instead of reporting it promptly. Greed is one aspect of it. Corruption, indifference and anti-democratic attitudes about the country also play a role.

[CrispyQ]

8. "The other question I have is - what changed within the Repug Party."

Others have questioned that too.

Why it matters that McCarthy went to Mar-a-Lago to kiss the ring
Earlier this month, several Republican leaders started imagining in earnest a post-Trump GOP. That's over now.

Jan. 29, 2021, 6:40 AM MST
By Steve Benen

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/why-it-matters-mccarthy-went-mar-lago-kiss-ring-n1256137

snip...

McCarthy tried to carefully thread a needle, acknowledging Trump's wrongdoing while simultaneously pushing back against the idea of holding Trump accountable, but it didn't work. The former president raged about McCarthy having "bowed to pressure" and failing to show absolute, genuflecting fealty.

And instead of ignoring Trump's whining, and turning his focus toward governance, McCarthy instead got on a plane, went to Mar-a-Lago, and kissed the ring of the disgraced former president he'd infuriated with a mild rebuke.

more...

By some accounts, it's an addiction of convenience. The Associated Press reported overnight, "Republicans appear to be warming toward Trump, fully aware that his supporters are poised to punish anyone who displays disloyalty. With that in mind, party leaders are working to keep Trump in the fold as they focus on retaking the House and Senate in 2022."

In other words, GOP leaders would have us believe that they're not necessarily kowtowing to their corrupt former leader; they're merely using him to acquire power. Roll Call had a related report noting that McCarthy is especially interested in exploiting Trump's donor base to help finance Republican campaigns in the 2022 midterms.

The Man Who Refused to Bow
Adam Kinzinger says he’ll fight to take his party back from Donald Trump.

By Peter Wehner
FEBRUARY 27, 2021


https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/02/man-who-refused-bow/618156/

snip...

“I don’t have a constitutional duty to defend against a guy that is a jerk and maybe says some things I don’t like,” Kinzinger told me, explaining what had pushed him to finally break with the president. “I do when he’s getting ready to destroy democracy—and we saw that culminate on January 6th.”

This was the sort of language a number of Republicans used in the immediate aftermath of the riot. “The president bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob rioters,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said on January 13. But by the end of the month, McCarthy was traveling hat in hand to Mar-a-Lago to meet with Trump.

“I was really pissed—I wasn’t surprised, but I was really upset,” Kinzinger said. “And to have seen it in just such a short amount of time go from ‘Donald Trump bears blame’ to ‘I’m going to go down and kiss the ring’ because you want to win your speakership. I mean, really? It’s that important? For what?”

In Kinzinger’s view, McCarthy’s Florida trip was an act of betrayal by a man who was supposed to put the interests of his own caucus—and of the country—first. “Starting about eight months ago, I noticed that he was never interested in defending [House Republicans] … He would throw us under the bus and defend Donald Trump,” he said. “And that was just more of what this is. And then [Minority Whip] Steve Scalise goes down” to Mar-a-Lago, two weeks later. One by one, most of the leaders of his party knuckled under—but not Kinzinger.

I think there are a ton of republican voters who hate Trump & the likes of MTGreene & they're against book banning & in favor of science, & right now they're embarrassed by their party, but they've been brainwashed for decades to believe no matter how bad the republican party is, the dems are worse.