WASHINGTON, April 22 (Reuters) – Congressman Kevin McCarthy, the top Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives, came under fire from some of his fellow party members, after an audio recording showed him saying that then-President Donald Trump should resign over the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot.
The comments, which McCarthy had denied hours before the recording emerged, could undermine his widely known ambition to become House speaker next year if Republicans take control of the chamber in November’s midterm elections, as expected.
But as criticism of the House minority leader mounted on Twitter, the Washington Post reported that he and Trump had spoken by phone and that the Republican former president was not upset about McCarthy’s remarks. That could significantly mute the rank-and-file reaction among Trump supporters.
The audio – recorded days after Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, delaying certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential election victory – depicts a conversation between McCarthy and Representative Liz Cheney, who was ousted from party leadership weeks later over her opposition to Trump.
McCarthy told Cheney he planned to call Trump to discuss a mechanism for invoking the 25th Amendment, under which then-Vice President Mike Pence and Cabinet members could have removed the president from office.
“The only discussion I would have with him is that I think this will pass, and it would be my recommendation you should resign,” McCarthy says in the recording, released on cable news channel MSNBC late on Thursday.
In another audio tape, McCarthy told Republican lawmakers that Trump had admitted bearing some responsibility for the Jan. 6 attack, according to CNN.
McCarthy’s office did not respond to requests for comment on Friday. A Trump spokesman also was not immediately available.
Biden referenced the audio in remarks on Friday, saying the Republicans were “a MAGA party now,” referring to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan. Republicans who oppose Trump privately are scared to do so publicly, he said. read more
The first reference to McCarthy’s comments appeared on Thursday in a New York Times article published as part of a forthcoming book by two Times reporters.
The newspaper also reported that McCarthy told other Republican leaders he wished big tech companies would strip social media accounts from party lawmakers who supported Trump’s false claims of a rigged 2020 election.
McCarthy initially denied the Times account in a statement that called the reporting “totally false and wrong.”
U.S. Representative Adam Kinzinger, one of the few Republican politicians openly critical of Trump, blasted McCarthy on Twitter on Thursday night over his denial.
“Question for Kevin McCarthy … how can you honestly feel ok with the lies? Yes, other people lie too, but you have claimed to fight for a higher purpose,” Kinzinger asked. “Honestly Kevin, is it worth it?”
McCarthy, who has also faced criticism from hard-line conservatives within his caucus, publicly zigzagged on Trump’s culpability for the Jan. 6 riot by first saying the former president bore some responsibility for the violence – but finally visited Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort home in Florida and posed for a photograph with him.
McCarthy’s political fate will depend largely on Trump, who remains the most powerful figure in the Republican Party more than a year after he left office.
The Post cited two unnamed sources as saying that McCarthy and Trump spoke on Thursday night and that the former president was glad the Republican leader did not follow through with his plan to ask him to resign, seeing it as a sign of his continued grip on the Republican Party.
The push for another lethal aid package comes as lawmakers and the Biden administration alike are looking to redouble U.S. support for Ukraine as the country’s war with Russia enters a new phase in the Donbas region. The president will formally request the money next week when lawmakers return to Washington.
“I support a package to address continued research and investment and therapeutics and vaccinations that we need for Covid … but I also think it’s very important to get this aid out to Ukraine as quickly as possible,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) told reporters on a conference call from the Balkans, where she traveled this week alongside Sens. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.).
Murphy said he was “open to any pathway that is the fastest” to get both Ukraine aid and Covid assistance to the president’s desk. Tillis, on the other hand, said that while he supports new funding for Covid therapeutics, it shouldn’t slow down the Ukraine portion.
“If that [Covid aid] discussion is going to take a matter of weeks, we have to make a decision on Ukrainian support in a matter of hours or days,” Tillis said.
The urgency for new aid follows several lawmaker visits to the region over the two-week congressional recess. Last week, Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) and Ukraine-born Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) were the first American officials known to have traveled to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion began in February.
Biden announced an additional $800 million in military aid for Ukraine on Thursday, and in doing so revealed that he has “almost exhausted” a key fund that Congress created as part of the last Ukraine package. He said he would be asking Congress for additional funding next week “in order to sustain Ukraine for the duration of this fight” and “keep weapons and ammunition flowing without interruption.”
The president said he wants Congress to move “quickly” on the request, but it could get slowed down if lawmakers try to tack on other White House priorities. And amid the criticism over Title 42, Democrats have discussed potentially crafting a supplemental appropriations bill for the border.
Covid aid was put on hold before the current congressional recess after Republicans sought to halt Biden’s decision to scrap Title 42. Since then, pressure on Biden has only grown — including from within his own party. Granting amendment votes on Title 42 would be tricky for Democratic Senate leaders, since there’s a possibility enough Democrats would side with Republicans.
Still, Congress’ top priority remains providing additional military and humanitarian assistance for Ukraine and ensuring that the aid is delivered promptly, with as few bureaucratic hurdles as possible. Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday she plans to take up aid “as soon as we can next week,” though her spokesperson, Drew Hammill, later clarified that there is “no specific timeline for a floor vote at this time.”
Before the recess, the Senate unanimously approved a bill to reestablish a World War II-era program known as Lend-Lease, which would allow the U.S. to more efficiently send weapons and other critical supplies to Ukraine with the promise of repayment at a later date.
House leaders are in discussions about putting that legislation on the floor next week, and sending it to Biden’s desk. It would be put up for a vote under a procedure that requires support from two-thirds of the chamber for passage.
Lawmakers are also exploring additional avenues for humanitarian assistance to help rebuild Ukrainian cities and towns pummeled by Russian shelling. And they’re eyeing Biden’s forthcoming request for military assistance as a possible catch-all vehicle for related measures.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has vowed that everything will be rebuilt, and has used the word “reparations” in demanding that Russia foot the bill.
The Justice Department recently launched an effort, known as Task Force KleptoCapture, to go after Russian oligarchs’ luxury assets. But it requires an act of Congress to transfer title of those funds and direct them toward rebuilding Ukraine’s infrastructure. (A similar but not identical bill introduced in the House has raised alarm among civil-liberties advocates.)
In an interview, Bennet said his proposal is “just common sense.”
“Zelenskyy has called [Vladimir] Putin a butcher, and I think that’s the right way to talk about what’s going on here,” Bennet said. “The least we can do is make sure the proceeds from the billionaires that have enabled Putin … go to help the Ukrainians resettle and do the reconstruction and recovery work that they’re going to have to do once this war is over.”
Before the two-week recess, the House and Senate near-unanimously approved legislation banning Russian energy imports and revoking normal trade relations with Russia and Belarus. And in March, lawmakers negotiated a $14 billion military and economic aid package for Ukraine as part of a broader government spending bill. It was Congress’ largest commitment to Ukraine to date.
One senator close to Biden even raised the idea of U.S. troop involvement in the war — something the president has ruled out.
Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) recently said Congress and the White House should “come to a common position about when we are willing to go the next step and to send not just arms but troops to the aid in defense of Ukraine.” He added that “if the answer is never, then we are inviting another level of escalation in brutality by Putin.”
However, he walked back those statements in a tweet Monday, saying he was calling for the “global community” to continue to fight Putin and that he was “not calling for U.S. troops to go into the war in Ukraine.”
Most lawmakers in both parties continue to oppose measures that would put American and Russian troops in combat, including the imposition of a no-fly zone, even as they insist that no option should be off the table.
Marianne LeVine, Burgess Everett and Alexander Ward contributed to this report.
KYIV/MARIUPOL, Ukraine, April 23 (Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned that Russia’s invasion of his country was just the beginning and that Moscow has designs on capturing other countries, after a Russian general said it wants full control over southern Ukraine.
“All the nations that, like us, believe in the victory of life over death must fight with us. They must help us, because we are the first in line. And who will come next?” Zelenskiy said in a video address late on Friday.
Rustam Minnekayev, deputy commander of Russia’s central military district, was quoted by Russian state news agencies as saying full control over southern Ukraine would give it access to Transnistria, a breakaway Russian-occupied part of Moldova in the west. read more
That would cut off Ukraine’s entire coastline and mean Russian forces pushing hundreds of miles further west, past the major Ukrainian coastal cities of Mykolaiv and Odesa.
The statement was one of the most detailed about Moscow’s ambitions in Ukraine and suggests Russia does not plan to wind down its offensive there anytime soon.
Ukraine’s defence ministry said Minnekayev’s comments showed Russia was no longer hiding its intentions.
Moscow, it said on Twitter, had now “acknowledged that the goal of the ‘second phase’ of the war is not victory over the mythical Nazis, but simply the occupation of eastern and southern Ukraine. Imperialism as it is.”
Russia says it is conducting a “special military operation” to demilitarise Ukraine and liberate its population from dangerous nationalists. Ukraine and its Western allies call Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion an unjustified war of aggression.
Moldova’s foreign ministry said it had summoned Moscow’s ambassador on Friday to express “deep concern” about the general’s comments. Moldova was neutral, it said. Moldova last month applied to join the European Union, charting a pro-Western course hastened by Russia’s invasion.
U.S. State Department spokesperson Jalina Porter said Washington firmly supported Moldova’s sovereignty.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment when asked if Russia had expanded the goals of its operation and how Moscow saw the political future of southern Ukraine.
As U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal in Washington, Zelenskiy said allies were finally delivering the weapons Kyiv had asked for.
President Joe Biden said on Thursday he had authorized a further $800 million in military aid for Ukraine, including heavy artillery, ammunition and drones. Canada said on Friday it had provided more heavy artillery to Ukraine. read more
A senior EU official said the next couple of weeks would likely be decisive.
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A Ukrainian soldier jumps of a destroyed Russian tank on the outskirts of the village of Mala Rohan, amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in Kharkiv region, Ukraine, April 20, 2022. Picture taken April 20, 2022. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis
“We are likely to see a very significant increase in the intensity of Russian military attacks in the east (and on) the coast,” he told reporters.
Ukraine’s military said Russia is continuing its offensive operations in the east, trying to establish full control of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and secure a land connection to Crimea.
Russian forces are also partially blockading the city of Kharkiv, according to a Saturday morning update from Ukraine’s general staff.
In Mykolaiv, 87 civilians have died in the invasion, including one child, Mayor Oleksandr Senkevich said late Friday on his Facebook page. Nearly 400 people have been wounded. Reuters could not independently verify the report.
Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of Russia’s Chechnya region who has often described himself as Putin’s “foot soldier”, wrote on his official Telegram account late on Friday that Chechnya was deploying hundreds of additional volunteers to fight for Russia in Ukraine.
In Geneva, the United Nations human rights office said there was growing evidence of Russian war crimes, including indiscriminate shelling and summary executions. It said Ukraine also appeared to have used weapons with indiscriminate effects.
Russia denies targeting civilians and says, without evidence, that signs of atrocities committed by its soldiers were faked. Ukraine has previously said it will punish any soldiers found to have committed war crimes.
Russia said it had “securely blockaded” thousands of Ukrainian troops holed up in a huge steel works in Mariupol, the main port of the Donbas, a day after President Vladimir Putin said the army would not bother rooting them out.
Putin declared victory in the city after a nearly two-month siege. In a Russian-held section of Mariupol, dazed-looking residents ventured out this week to a background of charred apartment blocks and wrecked cars.
Volunteers in white hazmat suits and masks roved the ruins, collecting bodies from apartments and loading them on to a truck marked with the letter “Z”, symbol of Russia’s invasion.
Ukraine estimates tens of thousands of civilians have died in Russia’s siege of the city and says 100,000 civilians are still there and need full evacuation.
Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk on Friday said “there is a possibility” a humanitarian corridor out of Mariupol could be opened up on Saturday.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will visit Moscow on Tuesday to meet Putin and discuss urgently bringing peace to Ukraine, a spokesperson said, adding that Guterres will then head to Kyiv for talks with Zelenskiy.
The U.S. military expects more than 20 countries to attend Ukraine-focused defence talks it will host in Germany next week that will focus in part on Kyiv’s long-term defence needs, the Pentagon said on Friday.
“How is this not blackmail?” said Scott Randolph, the Orange County tax collector. “Why would a business want to invest in Florida when the entire rules can change in 72 hours? To me this sends a scary message about the business environment in Florida.”
Randy Fine, the Republican legislator who sponsored the bill to end Disney’s special self-governing privileges, said that under the arrangement, the company had the right to seize private property, build a nuclear power plant and ignore zoning rules and safety codes. The real issue for Disney, he said, was about “control — this isn’t really about money.”
Understand Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill
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Diverging perspectives. The proposal, which supporters call the “Parental Rights in Education” bill, but that opponents refer to as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, has become a national lightning rod since the Florida legislature passed the bill on March 8.
What the bill says. The bill would ban classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity in kindergarten through third grade. In other grades, lessons on those topics must be “age appropriate or developmentally appropriate.” The bill also has a parental notification requirement when children seek counseling.
What the bill’s supporters say. Those in favor of the bill say that it is limited in scope, and affirms parents’ rights to direct the upbringing of their children.
As it became increasingly clear this week that the measure would be enacted, some Floridians expressed growing concerns around the tax implications, though it is not yet certain what those may ultimately be.
While the new law ostensibly takes away big perks for Disney, like issuing its own building permits, Democrats warn that it leaves Central Florida’s Orange and Osceola counties holding the bag for some $163 million in annual taxes. Others, including Mr. Randolph, warned that local property owners could see significant property tax hikes.
Disney had been paying taxes to itself, using the money to pay for things like the police and fire services. Now, Orange County says it will have to take on the costs for municipal services to theme parks that Disney had paid for through Reedy Creek, the special taxing district the legislature eliminated.
“It’s obvious that it is political retribution that is at play here,” Jerry Demings, the mayor of Orange County, told reporters. “We are trying to understand what the legislature is trying to do in this case, but I believe they have not adequately contemplated the ramifications of what they have proposed at this point.”
Mr. DeSantis, for his part, insisted that Disney would “pay more taxes” and declared that “we have everything thought out.”
KYIV/MARIUPOL, Ukraine, April 22 (Reuters) – Moscow wants to take full control over southern Ukraine, a Russian general said on Friday, a statement Ukraine said gave the lie to Russia’s previous assertions that it had no territorial ambitions.
Rustam Minnekayev, deputy commander of Russia’s central military district, was quoted by Russian state news agencies as saying full control over southern Ukraine would give it access to Transnistria, a breakaway Russian-occupied part of Moldova in the west.
That would cut off Ukraine’s entire coastline and mean Russian forces pushing hundreds of miles west beyond current lines, past the major Ukrainian coastal cities of Mykolaiv and Odesa.
Moscow says it is conducting a “special military operation” to demilitarise Ukraine and liberate its population from dangerous nationalists. Ukraine and its Western allies call Russia’s invasion an unjustified war of aggression.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Minnekayev’s statement showed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was “intended only as a beginning”.
“And then they want to capture other countries,” he said. “All the nations that, like us, believe in the victory of life over death must fight with us. They must help us, because we are the first in line. And who will come next?”
On Twitter, Ukraine’s defence ministry said Russia had now “acknowledged that the goal of the ‘second phase’ of the war is not victory over the mythical Nazis, but simply the occupation of eastern and southern Ukraine. Imperialism as it is.”
Minnekayev said Russian speakers were oppressed in Transnistria, something Moldova and Western leaders reject.
U.S. State Department spokesperson Jalina Porter declined specific comment on Minnekayev’s statement but said Washington firmly supported Moldova’s sovereignty and was “clear-eyed” about events on the ground. “No one should be fooled by the Kremlin’s announcements,” Porter said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment when asked if Russia had expanded the goals of its operation and how Moscow saw the political future of southern Ukraine.
In Washington, Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and the two discussed Ukraine’s most pressing needs, a statement said.
Zelenskiy said allies were finally delivering the weapons Kyiv had asked for and they would help save thousands of lives. read more
U.S. President Joe Biden said on Thursday he had authorized a further $800 million in military aid for Ukraine, including heavy artillery, ammunition and tactical drones. Canada said on Friday it had provided heavy artillery to Ukraine.
A senior EU official said the next couple of weeks would likely be decisive.
“This is not a fairy tale with an imminent happy ending,” he told reporters. “We are likely to see a very significant increase in the intensity of Russian military attacks in the east… we are likely to see an intensification of Russian military attacks along the coast.”
Ukraine’s military said Russian forces had increased attacks all along the frontline in the east and were attempting an offensive in the Kharkiv region, north of their main target, the Donbas.
Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had captured a large arms depot in the Kharkiv region. It also reported hitting dozens of targets in the Donetsk and Kharkiv regions on Friday.
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A view shows an armoured vehicle destroyed during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine April 22, 2022. REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko
In Kharkiv city, shellfire hit the main Barabashovo market. Ambulance services said there had been casualties but gave no details. A wedding hall and a residential building were also struck.
Russia’s defence ministry confirmed for the first time that the crew of its Black Sea flagship Moskva, which Ukraine says it hit with an anti-ship missile, suffered casualties when it blew up and sank last week, a report from RIA news agency indicated. read more
In Geneva, the United Nations human rights office said there was growing evidence of Russian war crimes, including indiscriminate shelling and summary executions. It said Ukraine also appeared to have used weapons with indiscriminate effects.
Russia denies targeting civilians and says, without evidence, that signs of atrocities committed by its soldiers were faked. Ukraine has previously said it will punish any soldiers found to have committed war crimes. It did not respond immediately to the U.N. office’s remarks.
Russia’s defence ministry said thousands of Ukrainian troops holed up in a huge steel works in Mariupol, the main port of the Donbas, were “securely blockaded”, a day after President Vladimir Putin said the army would not bother rooting them out.
Putin has declared victory in the city after a nearly two-month siege, an announcement dismissed by Pentagon press secretary John Kirby, who told CNN there was still an active Ukrainian resistance.
In a Russian-held section of Mariupol, the guns had largely fallen silent and dazed-looking residents ventured out to a background of charred apartment blocks and wrecked cars. Some carried suitcases.
Volunteers in white hazmat suits and masks roved the ruins, collecting bodies from apartments and loading them on to a truck marked with the letter “Z”, symbol of Russia’s invasion.
Ukraine estimates tens of thousands of civilians have died in Russia’s bombardment and siege of the city and says 100,000 civilians are still there and need full evacuation.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk on Friday said “there is a possibility” a humanitarian corridor out of Mariupol could be opened up on Saturday. read more
Relatives of residents feared the worst. In Lviv, Sofia Telehina said her grandmother in Mariupol had cried constantly when they last spoke by phone and said everything was bombed to pieces. “Since then I’ve not been able to reach her,” she said. read more
In Zaporizhzhia, where 79 Mariupol residents arrived in the first convoy of buses permitted by Russia to leave for other parts of Ukraine, Valentyna Andrushenko held back tears as she recalled their ordeal.
“They (Russians) were bombing us from day one. They are demolishing everything.”
Moscow says it has taken 140,000 Mariupol residents to Russia. Kyiv says many were forcibly deported in what would be a war crime.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will visit Moscow on Tuesday to discuss urgently bringing peace to Ukraine, a spokesperson said, adding that Guterres might also visit Kyiv.
The Pentagon said more than 20 countries would attend U.S.- hosted defence talks in Germany next week to consider Ukraine’s long-term defence relationships once the war is over. read more
Friday evening’s press conference at the scene of a shooting near a school in Northwest D.C.
WASHINGTON – Police have identified a person of interest connected to a shooting that left four people injured near a school in Northwest DC.
Officials announced they are searching for 23-year-old Raymond Spencer of Fairfax, Virginia.
DC police said they received a call about a shooting at about 3:30 p.m. on Friday along the 2900 block of Van Ness Street, NW near Edmund Burke School.
There have been at least four victims located, including two women, one man a 12-year-old girl, according to authorities. All the victims are in stable condition and expected to survive, police said.
Metropolitan Police provide cover for residents as they are evacuated away from a shooting scene on Van Ness Street Northwest on April 22, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Police are currently conducting sweeps in the area and are urging residents in the Cleveland Park and Van Ness area to shelter in place. Police say they do not have a suspect in custody.
Local and federal law enforcement respond to an alleged shooting near the 2900 block of Van Ness Street in Northwest, Washington, DC on April 22, 2022. (Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
FOX 5’s cameras captured someone being led away from the scene in handcuffs, but the police chief later said they were detaining people fleeing the scene to make sure they weren’t the shooter.
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Videos from the scene show a massive police presence surrounding the area along Connecticut Avenue. FOX 5 crews captured video of officers in tactical gear, armed with long guns who were escorting people out of the area.
FOX 5 DC spoke with witnesses at the scene who said they heard at least 100 gunshots in the area. One witness told FOX 5 she heard four separate incidents or rounds of gunfire take place.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said they were also responding to the shooting to help local authorities.
Police secure an area around the Connecticut Avenue during a reported shooting in Northwest, Washington, DC on April 22, 2022. (Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
The shooting took place near several embassies in the Van Ness area, including embassies for China, Pakistan, Israel, Nigeria and Singapore. The U.S. Secret Service said their officers were assisting local police and said there was “no impact to Secret Service protectees.”
The University of D.C. announced that their Van Ness campus is on lockdown in response to the shooting. The Sidwell Friends School in Northwest D.C. also announced it is on lockdown.
DC police said a family reunification site has been set up at the Cleveland Park Library located at 3310 Connecticut Ave, NW.
They asked anyone who is searching for family members to go to the location and speak with officials about how to locate them.
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FOX 5 DC crews are at the scene and we will continue to bring you updates as they become available.
If McCarthy is pushed out of Republican leadership following the release of audio in which he blames Trump for the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and says, “I’ve had it with this guy,” all eyes would be on Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), Marianna says. Scalise has been McCarthy’s No. 2 for quite some time, serving as House minority whip.
In an undated photo, Melissa Lucio is pictured with one of her young children.
Legal team for Melissa Lucio
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Legal team for Melissa Lucio
In an undated photo, Melissa Lucio is pictured with one of her young children.
Legal team for Melissa Lucio
Melissa Lucio is scheduled to be executed next week for a crime she says she didn’t commit — one that may not have even occurred. She was convicted 14 years ago of murdering her 2-year-old daughter, Mariah, and a Texas jury sentenced her to death.
The state says Lucio beat her daughter to death. But as new details have emerged about her case, a growing chorus of lawmakers, faith leaders, anti-domestic violence organizations and celebrities has called for clemency. At least one juror from the trial says the jury wasn’t given the full picture — and that if he had known more, he would have never voted for the death penalty.
“No court has ever considered the new evidence of Melissa Lucio’s innocence,” says Vanessa Potkin, director of special litigation at the Innocence Project and one of Lucio’s attorneys. “So first and foremost, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals could issue a stay so that the evidence of Melissa Lucio’s innocence can be fully litigated in the court. And that’s what we’re hoping for.”
The case hinges on an interrogation of Lucio conducted two hours after Mariah died, during which officers tried to get Lucio to confess to hurting her daughter.
Lucio’s attorneys say police had already decided on a narrative when they brought her in for interrogation. After five hours of questioning, during which Lucio expressed her innocence more than 100 times, she eventually said “I guess I did it” when asked if she was responsible for some of her daughter’s injuries. The state called it an admission of guilt for Mariah’s death.
Potkin says Lucio had inadequate defense during her trial. Witness testimony from one of Mariah’s siblings about the 2-year-old’s fall down an uneven staircase two days before her death never made it before the jury, and expert witnesses were not allowed to testify on reasons why Lucio might have made a false “confession.”
She is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Wednesday. If she is killed, she would be the first Hispanic woman to be executed in Texas in the modern era of the death penalty, and the first woman executed in Texas since 2014.
Who is Melissa Lucio?
Lucio, 53, is a Mexican American woman who has struggled against poverty and abuse since childhood. She is the mother of 14 children, including Mariah.
According to court documents submitted by Lucio’s attorneys, she was sexually abused by her mother’s boyfriend starting at the age of 6 — abuse that lasted for two years. She married at age 16. According to the Innocence Project, it was an abusive marriage. Her first husband, the group says, was a violent alcoholic who left her after she gave birth to their five children.
“Her next partner continued the cycle of violence, punching her in public and beating her at home. By the time she gave birth to her twelfth child, Melissa had experienced homelessness, drug addiction, and severe mental illness,” according to an amicus brief filed by former prosecutors, anti-violence organizations and others on Lucio’s behalf.
Texas death row inmate Melissa Lucio, dressed in white, leads a group of seven Texas lawmakers in prayer on April 6 in a room at the Mountain View Unit in Gatesville, Texas. The lawmakers visited Lucio to update her about their efforts to stop her April 27 execution.
Texas state Rep. Jeff Leach via AP
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Texas state Rep. Jeff Leach via AP
Texas death row inmate Melissa Lucio, dressed in white, leads a group of seven Texas lawmakers in prayer on April 6 in a room at the Mountain View Unit in Gatesville, Texas. The lawmakers visited Lucio to update her about their efforts to stop her April 27 execution.
Texas state Rep. Jeff Leach via AP
Lucio was pregnant with twin boys at the time of Mariah’s death and when she was interrogated. She gave birth to the twins while in jail and was forced to give them up for adoption.
In 2007, Lucio’s family was living in a second-floor apartment in Harlingen, in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, and the family was preparing and packing to move to a new home.
“At some point they didn’t hear Mariah playing anymore, went to check on her, and she had managed to get out of the screen door and was at the bottom of the staircase,” says Potkin, the Innocence Project attorney. “Melissa didn’t observe the fall herself. She saw Mariah at the bottom with a bleeding lip, but she otherwise didn’t appear to be seriously injured. One of Mariah’s other siblings witnessed the fall and later, when interviewed by Child Protective Services after Mariah’s death, stated that he saw his sibling fall down the stairs.”
Some of that evidence, says Potkin, was not disclosed to the defense as they were preparing for trial.
Why do people think she’s innocent?
At Lucio’s trial, expert witnesses for the defense were not allowed to testify as to why she might have given a false confession. Among the experts her attorneys sought to put on the stand was a psychologist who planned to testify that Lucio’s history as a survivor of domestic and sexual abuse helped explain why she told interrogators what they wanted to hear — even if it wasn’t true. But the trial judge ruled that testimony “irrelevant,” according to court documents.
Potkin says it’s now recognized that “having a trauma history such as Melissa had, being a survivor of sexual abuse and domestic abuse, is a risk factor and vulnerability during custodial interrogation for false confession.”
False confessions are more common than you might think. More than a quarter of people exonerated by the Innocence Project in recent decades had confessed to the crime they allegedly committed, as Science reported.
There have also been questions about the testimony provided by the medical examiner alleging that injuries on Mariah’s body were clear signs of abuse. But Lucio had no history of child abuse. She admitted that she had spanked Mariah on the butt, but denied abusing her. A pathologist interviewed by The Intercept says the medical examiner who conducted Mariah’s autopsy jumped to conclusions and ignored evidence that Mariah died due to an accident.
“There is significant evidence of her innocence that no court, no fact finder has ever considered,” Potkin says. She says that after Mariah’s family discovered the child had stopped breathing, they frantically called for help — and the responding police rushed to judgment in concluding that Mariah’s death had been a murder, due to profound bruising on her body.
Instead, Potkin says, the blood coagulation seen in Mariah’s autopsy was the result of an accidental head injury, like a fall down stairs. It’s a disorder, she says, that in other cases has been “confused for child abuse because it causes extensive bleeding and bruising throughout the body.”
The stairway outside the Lucios’ apartment in Harlingen, Texas, where attorneys for Melissa Lucio say her daughter Mariah fell before she died.
Legal team for Melissa Lucio
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Legal team for Melissa Lucio
The stairway outside the Lucios’ apartment in Harlingen, Texas, where attorneys for Melissa Lucio say her daughter Mariah fell before she died.
Legal team for Melissa Lucio
Lucio’s supporters say many of the issues in her trial trace back to the head prosecutor in the case, Armando Villalobos. The former Cameron County district attorney recently spent several years in federal prison for bribery and extortion. At the time of Lucio’s trial, Villalobos was running for reelection against a challenger who criticized him for not thoroughly investigating or prosecuting charges of child abuse. Lucio’s attorneys say Villalobos wanted to make an example of Lucio to prove he was tough on crime.
Her family maintains her innocence and has pushed hard to get her off death row. Five of the trial’s 12 jurors have called for her clemency.
“She is an innocent woman,” John Lucio, Melissa’s eldest son, told Latino USA at a protest outside the Cameron County Courthouse in February. “She is not guilty of the death of my baby sister.”
What have the courts said?
Lucio and her attorneys have not had success in reversing the initial verdict. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit reviewed Lucio’s case and overturned it, finding that she had been denied the opportunity to present a full defense at her trial and that a new trial was warranted.
Melissa Lucio is seen here in an undated photo provided by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
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Melissa Lucio is seen here in an undated photo provided by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
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But the state of Texas appealed the decision, and the case then went to the 17 judges that comprise the 5th Circuit. A majority of the judges said the conviction had to be upheld because they were barred by a procedural rule that limits a federal court’s ability to review state court findings.
To prevent Lucio from being executed, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott could grant her clemency. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals could also stop the execution.
Abbott’s office did not respond to a request for comment, but in March the governor said he was awaiting a decision by the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. “I’ll make a decision once it comes to me,” Abbott told KRGV, an ABC News affiliate in the Rio Grande Valley.
Cameron County District Attorney Luis Saenz — who was not the DA at the time of Lucio’s trial — told Texas lawmakers last week that he would move to delay Lucio’s execution if the Board of Pardons and Paroles rejects calls for clemency and the courts don’t intervene.
“If Melissa does not get a stay by a certain day, then I will do what I have to do and stop it,” Saenz said, as theAustin American-Statesman reported.
Saenz’s office did not respond to a request for comment on the case.
Potkin said that now is a complicated time emotionally for Lucio.
“While there is great optimism in some regards because of the support and because it seems to be resonating with so many people, that she has a compelling claim of innocence and just the injustice that would happen if this execution goes forward,” Potkin said on Wednesday. “At the same time, here we are, seven days away from her execution date. And so she has to confront that reality, too, that the execution could go forward.”
Lucio’s thoughts are with her children, Potkin said, as she talks to friends about the roles they could play in the life of her kids if she is not alive after next week.
In the letter, the board of directors expressed their disappointment on the decision, especially after decades of drawing massive crowds to the small Santa Clara County town. The festival, which was first held in 1979, was canceled in 2020 at the height of the pandemic. In 2021, organizers tried to revitalize the celebration with a drive-thru event.
But after posting losses for a decade, the festival became financially unsustainable, organizers said.
Tom Cline, former president of the Gilroy Garlic Festival, told the Dispatch that the mounting price of insurance premiums alone had made hosting the event difficult. Other expenses, such as bussing attendees to the venue at Christmas Hill Park, had likewise placed a financial strain.
FILE — Esperanza Pineda, center left, and Jennifer Smith, center right, sell locally-grown garlic at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in Gilroy on July 24, 2004. Organizers of the Gilroy Garlic Festival announced that the longstanding event has been canceled indefinitely.
MARCIO JOSE SANCHEZ/ASSOCIATED PRESS
“The City of Gilroy does require a minimum general liability coverage level of $1 million for any events occurring in city parks, on city streets, on city sidewalks, in city parking lots, in city buildings, or taking place in any city facility,” the board said in a statement. “But they are requiring much more from the Gilroy Garlic Festival Association. And for the record, GGFA does have insurance coverage of 1 million.”
The Gilroy Garlic Festival received national attention in 2019 after a mass shooting in which three guests were killed and dozens more were injured. The gunman, 19-year-old Santino William Legan, breached security and was armed with an assault-style weapon. A 2020 report by the Santa Clara District Attorney’s Office determined that Legan was shot by police officers before fatally shooting himself.
In the months that followed the horrific event, festival organizers were slapped with an ongoing lawsuit filed by multiple victims who argued heightened security measures should have been implemented at the festival. Planners maintain that the mass shooing three years ago wasn’t a contributing factor in canceling the event in 2022, KCRA reports.
Organizers are already planning to host small-scale celebrations this summer, beginning in June with a golf tournament that will include lunch and dinner. They also plan to host a concert event at Clos LaChance Winery in July.
“We also did sign the congressional reapportionment in Tallahassee earlier today, so that’s going to be transmitted,” DeSantis said.
The League of Women Voters of Florida, which successfully challenged Florida’s last round of maps passed a decade ago, filed the lawsuit in circuit court in Leon County, along with other organizations such as Black Voters Matters and Florida Rising, as well as 12 voters living across the state.
“The League and the other plaintiffs have chosen to not stand by while a rogue governor and a complicit state Legislature make a mockery of Florida’s Constitution and try to silence the votes and voices of hundreds of thousands of Black voters,” said Cecile Scoon, president of the League of Women Voters of Florida in a statement.
The National Redistricting Foundation, the group led by former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, is helping support the lawsuit, and lawyers from the Washington-based Elias Law Group are working on the challenge.
“Republicans across the country tried — and completely failed — to gerrymander their way to a congressional majority,” Holder said in a statement. “In response to this defeat, DeSantis has bullied the legislature into enacting a map that does not allow for a fair electoral contest, and instead draws Republicans an illegitimate and illegal partisan advantage that they have not earned from the voters.”
The governor’s office as well as Senate President Wilton Simpson (R-Trilby) and Speaker Chris Sprowls (R-Palm Harbor) did not immediately respond to a request to comment.
But the lawsuit was well anticipated, and state legislators agreed to set aside $1 million along with the new map to help defend the proposal.
Florida gained one congressional seat in 2022 due to population growth, for a total of 28. Republicans currently hold a 16-11 edge, and the map that was initially approved by the Legislature last month would have increased the GOP advantage by two seats.
But DeSantis vetoed that map and insisted that it was unconstitutional because it still preserved a likely Black congressional seat in the Jacksonville area. His legal team maintained that such a configuration ran against recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings.
While Republicans called DeSantis’ assessment a “novel legal theory,” they accepted his argument and during a special session held this week passed his map, which they maintained was still “constitutional.” That map would likely give Republicans a 20-8 edge.
But in their filings, the groups challenging the map contend the proposal violates Florida’s voter-approved anti-gerrymandering standards — called Fair Districts — that were first approved by voters back in 2010.
The lawsuit alleges that the decision to break up the seat now held by Rep. Al Lawson (D-Fla.) in northern Florida runs counter to a Florida constitutional requirement that seats held by people of color cannot be diminished. Those suing also argue that the newly approved map is also defective because it is an “extreme” gerrymander that was done to aid Republicans even though state law says maps cannot be drawn to benefit one political party over another.
The map approved by the Legislature not only dismantles Lawson’s seat, but changes the makeup of the seat now held by Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.) so that Black voters no longer constitute the largest share of Democratic primary voters. The new map also would potentially lead to a flip of the seat in the Tampa Bay area now held by Rep. Charlie Crist (D-Fla.), who is not seeking a new term because he’s running for governor. The Central Florida district held by retiring Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.) would also become a GOP-friendly district.
Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida on Friday revoked Disney’s special tax privileges in the state, culminating an extraordinary clash between one of the Republican Party’s leading figures and a powerful company with deep historical ties in his state.
The move, which reverses 55 years of precedent, came after a weekslong battle with Disney that largely centered on the company’s criticism of an education law Mr. DeSantis signed that is at the center of America’s latest culture fight. The education law, called the “Parental Rights in Education” measure — or, to its critics, “Don’t Say Gay” — limits classroom instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity in some grades.
“I’m just not comfortable having that type of agenda get special treatment in my state,” Mr. DeSantis said on Friday.
Widely seen as retaliation, Mr. DeSantis’s move vividly illustrated just how drastically the G.O.P. has transformed from the days when its leaders mostly moved in lock step with the nation’s largest businesses.
“Control over the south of Ukraine is another way out to Transnistria, where there are also facts of oppression of the Russian-speaking population,” said Rustam Minnekaev, acting commander of Russia’s Central Military District, according to the Russian news agency Interfax.
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A Ukrainian official said Friday that Russia is refusing to allow evacuations from a Mariupol steel plant by “pretending” there is no difference between military surrender and civilian evacuations.
“The Russians refuse to open a corridor for civilians, cynically pretending that they do not understand the difference between a corridor for the military to surrender and a humanitarian corridor to evacuate the civilians,” Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereschuk said. “But they do understand it all.
“It’s just that they are trying to lay extra pressure on our military,” she added.
Smoke rises above Azovstal steelworks, in Mariupol, Ukraine, in this still image obtained from a recent drone video posted on social media. (MARIUPOL CITY COUNCIL/via REUTERS THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. MANDATORY CREDIT. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES.)
Vereschuk has been attempting to facilitate the evacuation of civilians from the partially besieged port city for weeks, but her attempts have been repeatedly foiled by Russian troops.
After several consecutive days of negotiating with Russian forces to open humanitarian corridors, the deputy prime minister said no evacuations would be happening Friday and urged Mariupol residents to “be patient” and “please hold on.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed victory over the war-torn city Thursday, despite the thousands of resistance forces that remain in the city.
Roughly 100,000 residents are believed to still be in Mariupol and over 1,000 civilians and soldiers have taken to the tunnels under the steel plant – a site that has become a stronghold for the resistance.
In an attempt to root out those hunkered in the tunnels Putin advised his troops to block off the tunnels to bar access to resupplies, claiming those who voluntarily lay down their arms will be “guarantee[d] life and dignified treatment.”
Smoke rises above the Mariupol Azovstal Iron and Steel Works factory Wednesday April 20. (REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko)
“The Russians are afraid to storm Azovstal, but at the same time they are knowingly and cynically blocking the release of civilians from Azovstal, thus trying to put additional pressure on our military,” the deputy prime minister said.
Ukrainian soldiers have reportedly refused to surrender.
“There is such thing as a corridor for the military to surrender. The Russians have provided one, but we don’t need it, as our military don’t want to surrender,” Vereschuk said. “There is also such thing as a humanitarian corridor to evacuate the civilians out of the combat zone.
A boy rides a scooter near a destroyed building in Mariupol, Ukraine. (REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko)
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is testifying in court Friday in an administrative hearing on a challenge seeking to block her from the ballot in Georgia based on a post-Civil War era policy about keeping insurrectionists from office.
Asked repeatedly if she knew of certain groups planning demonstrations on January 6, 2021, Greene responded, “I don’t recall.” Greene also repeatedly said she didn’t remember if she talked to other members of Congress or anyone in the White House about protests planned for that day. She was also asked about tweets on her account, including one featuring an Epoch Times article quoting Trump saying supporters should join the “wild” protest in Washington, D.C., on January 6. She said she was just looking to share details about the march.
Ron Fein, the attorney for the group of challengers, Free Speech for the People, said Friday that the “most powerful witness against Marjorie Taylor Greene’s candidacy, in establishing she crossed a line, is Greene herself.”
Greene’s lawyer, James Bopp Jr., said the candidacy challenge “cannot be decided by this court” and suggested that the U.S. House of Representatives should have a role to debate whether she should be disqualified or prevented from being seated as a member of Congress in 2023, after the midterm election.
Bopp called the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol “despicable” but said none of the hundreds of people convicted so far in the assault were specifically charged for insurrection. He did say Greene met with former President Trump on January 3 “about making objections to certain states — based on evidence she believed constituted sufficient voter fraud.”
The challenge to Greene’s candidacy was mounted by a group of five voters from her congressional district who argued she is ineligible to run for federal office under a provision of the 14th Amendment that was ratified after the Civil War and meant to keep former Confederate officers and officials from holding public office again. Section 3 of the amendment states that “no person shall be a senator or representative in Congress” or “hold any office, civil or military” if they, after having taken an oath to support the Constitution, “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”
The administrative judge in Greene’s case, Charles Beaudrot, will make a recommendation to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger about Greene’s candidacy, and it will be up to him to decide whether to remove her from the ballot. Raffensperger is also up this year for reelection.
A federal judge on Monday allowed the effort to disqualify Greene from running for reelection over her role in the January 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol to proceed.
Aaron Navarro is an associate producer for the political unit at CBS News, focusing on House and gubernatorial campaigns as well as the census and redistricting.
In addition to giving loved ones and friends a chance to pay their respects to the 26-year-old who immigrated with his family to the U.S. in 2014, the service was a reminder of racial challenges that America — and police departments — still face.
It was a funeral aimed at rallying a community that is hurting and feels a grave injustice has been committed.
Speakers included a civil rights leader, a U.S. representative, a local commissioner, and Congolese-American ministers and advocates.
The Rev. Al Sharpton, who delivered a fiery eulogy, began by noting that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968, the same date 54 years earlier, that Lyoya was killed.
Sharpton’s message was a rallying cry, urging the crowd to take action to “stand with good cops who uphold the law,” and to stand against police killing people who are not a threat.
A nationally known commentator, he has a long history of activism against injustice. In 2004, he was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president. And he pledged to help Lyoya’s family cover funeral expenses.
“This cannot end today,” he told an applauding crowd, demanding officials release the name of the shooter. “To add insult to the injury they’re telling this family, they will not release the name of the one responsible for this death.”
The New York reverend questioned what message Lyoya’s death was sending to Africa and, around the world — especially in the face of Russia’s war in the Ukraine. He raised the legacy of slavery and and the dehumanization of others.
Sharpton asked if a man’s life was worth having the wrong car tags.
Sharpton added that every time a young Black man or woman is arrested, their names are printed and broadcast in the news, and every time, “we’re suspected of something, you put our name out there.”
Before the ceremony
Set at Renaissance Church of God in Christ, which can seat 1,000 people, family and other mourners viewed Lyoya’s body. It was placed in a white casket draped with the sky-blue flag of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“Patrick!” women cried out, weeping over the body, even before the service began.
Lyoya’s mother, Dorcas Lyoya, sat wearing a black hoodie with her boy’s photo, as his father, Peter Lyoya, who wore a white shirt also with his son’s image, cradled his head in his right hand.
But, more than a remembrance, the funeral was a platform to demand change with a call to action emblazoned on mourners’ black T-shirts. They read: “It’s Our Right to Live!” on the front and, “Justice for Patrick Lyoya,” on back.
Before the funeral, Bishop DJ McMurray, the church’s senior pastor, asked the guests to fill in empty seats to make room for everyone.
Mourners waited for about an hour for Sharpton, who was delayed, to arrive.
People, he said, flew in for the services from all over the country.
Lyoya remembered
Sharpton also said he wanted the Lyoya’s family to they were now family, too, because they were united by tragedy, and a common cause: justice.
“Can you imagine, how they must be discussing Patrick in the Congo?” Sharpton asked. “Patrick, in Africa? Patrick, all over this world? We stand with President Biden for those victims in Ukraine.”
“How they are saying, but they shot a young boy in the United States,” he added. “How from Ukraine to Grand Rapids we must stand up for victims.”
Sharpton said “we can’t bring Patrick back,” but “we can bring justice in Patrick’s name.”
Also speaking at the funeral, U.S Rep. Brenda Lawrence, D-Southfield, and the state’s only Black member of Congress, said she wanted to say to the family that “today is a day of grieving, but today the community has come to put their arms around you.”
She said she came to speak because the issue is personal.
“This is my community and if I don’t stand up, who will,” she added. “Today we lay to rest a man, father, son — and a victim. We know that as we have gotten our call to action we have work to do.”
Kent County Commissioner Robert Womack, who has been outspoken about Lyoya death, called upon local elected officials to speak up against “over policing in African-American communities.”
“We need you on the front lines, every day,” he said.
And he led the crowd in chants of “Black Lives Matter.”
A growing issue
Video of Lyoya’s stop and fatal shooting, which has been seen nationwide, raises questions of whether fatal force was necessary and whether race was an issue in the stop and shooting.
In recent years, police officers nationally have come under increased scrutiny as media outlets have uncovered how hundreds of motorists who were not wielding a weapon or sought for a violent crime.
In 2020, the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer sparked protests across the country.
Last year, a Free Press investigation found that Black men are nearly six times more likely in Michigan to be charged with resisting than white men and minor infractions, like failing to use a turn signal, have resulted in the forceful arrests.
According to a New York Times investigation, American police officers, over the previous five years, had killed more than 400 people “who were not wielding a gun or knife or under pursuit for a violent crime.”
And this year alone, more than 250 people were fatally shot by on-duty police officers nationwide, a Washington Post database shows.
Protests demand change
Since Lyoya’s death, there have been multiple protests in Grand Rapids and other cities across Michigan, including one in Lansing on Thursday.
The officer, whose name has not been released by officials, is on paid leave and is the subject of an investigation by the Michigan State Police. No charges have been brought against him.
A refugee from the Congo, Lyoya was shot an killed by a bullet fired in the back of his head, his family attorneys and an independent autopsy by two well-known pathologists said.
Family attorney Benjamin Crump said Thursday that Lyoya “was brutally executed.” He specializes in civil rights and catastrophic personal injury cases, and touts he is “devoted to advocating for the voiceless of our society.”
A call to action
Crump — who has represented high-profile victims of police violence, including Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and Michael Brown — spoke at the funeral, saying “we come here to make a plea for justice.”
He said that people could witness with their own eyes what happened.
“It’s not just an issue that affects Grand Rapids,” he said, adding that it goes beyond the state, country, and applies to the world. “This is an issue that affects all humanity because Patrick was a human being.”
Lyoya and his family faced violence and persecution in Congo, which has seen prolonged conflict. In the past couple of years, immigrants from Congo have made up the largest group of refugees in Michigan.
Lyoya’s parents told the Free Press through a translator that their son was a loving son who worked in a small plant manufacturing auto parts.
“They told us that in America, there’s peace, there’s safety, you’re not going to see killing anymore,” Dorcas Lyoya said. She added that the United States was portrayed as “a safe haven.”
Patrick Lyoya was pulled over by a police officer who said his license plate did not match the car. Crump suggested Lyoya may have been racially profiled since the officer initially approached him in the opposite direction and then made a U-turn.
After Lyoya got out of the car, a short chase and struggle ensued.
The officer drew his Taser at one point, video footage showed. The two wrestled over the Taser. While Lyoya was face down, the officer fired a bullet into the back of his head.
The independent autopsy report showed no other injuries on Lyoya’s body.
Contact Niraj Warikoo: nwarikoo@freepress.com or Twitter @nwarikoo.
Rep. Liz Cheney on Friday denied recording or leaking audio from a phone call that appears to show House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy saying he would tell then-President Donald Trump to resign after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
A portion of that call, dated Jan. 10, 2021, aired Thursday night on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show.” Hours earlier, McCarthy denied saying he would tell Trump to step down.
In the audio clip, the California Republican can be heard telling Cheney, R-Wyo., that he believed Trump would be impeached in the House and possibly convicted in the Senate after the Jan. 6 riot.
“The only discussion I would have with him is that I think this will pass, and it would be my recommendation you should resign,” McCarthy said, according to the recording.
Later Friday, news outlets aired a separate audio clip of McCarthy from Jan. 11, 2021. In it, McCarthy tells top House Republicans that Trump admitted he bears some responsibility for the Capitol riot.
“What he did is unacceptable. Nobody can defend that, and nobody should defend it,” McCarthy said, according to the latest recording.
The remarks came days after a mob of Trump’s supporters, spurred by the then-president’s false claims that widespread fraud cost him the 2020 election, stormed the Capitol and disrupted lawmakers’ confirmation of President Joe Biden’s victory.
A spokesperson for Cheney, one of two Republicans on the House select committee probing the Capitol riot, said in a statement Friday morning that the congresswoman “did not record or leak the tape and does not know how the reporters got it.”
“The select committee has asked Kevin McCarthy to speak with us about these events but he has so far declined,” the spokesperson said.
A spokesman for McCarthy did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request to comment. The spokesman also did not immediately explain the contradiction between McCarthy’s recorded remarks and his prior statement, which denied that McCarthy said he would push Trump to resign.
The bombshell recordings could threaten McCarthy’s hopes of becoming speaker of the House if Republicans retake control of the chamber in the 2022 midterm elections. The vast majority of House Republicans — who would vote on whether to make McCarthy speaker — have stayed loyal to Trump.
Though he lost the 2020 election to Biden and has continued to spread conspiracy theories to suggest that race was rigged against him, Trump is the most popular figure in the GOP and its de facto leader. He has hinted he will run for president again in 2024.
The New York Times on Thursday reported that McCarthy and other GOP leaders, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, initially vowed to kick Trump out of politics after the Jan. 6 riot. They quickly backed off due to fears of retribution from Trump and his supporters, according to the newspaper.
“I’ve had it with this guy,” McCarthy told a group of Republican leaders in the days after the attack, according to the Times. The newspaper’s report is based on details from the forthcoming book, “This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden and the Battle for America’s Future,” by Times reporters Alexander Burns and Jonathan Martin, who obtained the audio tapes of McCarthy.
In a call with top Republicans — apparently the same call where one of the audio clips came from — McCarthy also wondered aloud if tech companies could suspend the social media accounts of some Republican lawmakers, the Times reported.
“Can’t they take their Twitter accounts away, too?” he reportedly asked.
McCarthy on Thursday released a statement calling the Times’ reporting on him “totally false and wrong.” He accused the “corporate media” of furthering a “liberal agenda” and added that the Biden presidency has shown that America “was better off when President Trump was in the White House.”
The Times’ report also includes a denial from McCarthy spokesman Mark Bednar, who claimed that the GOP leader “never said he’d call Trump to say he should resign.”
But the audio clip shared Thursday night appears to contradict that claim.
In the recording, Cheney referenced the 25th Amendment — a constitutional process for removing a president from office. She then asked McCarthy, “What happens if it gets there after he’s gone? Is, is there any chance? Are you hearing that he might resign? Is there any reason to think that might happen?”
McCarthy responded: “I’ve had a few discussions. My gut tells me no. I’m seriously thinking of having that conversation with him tonight. I haven’t talked to him in a couple days.”
McCarthy said he doubted that Trump would agree to step aside. He added that an impeachment effort against Trump would definitely pass the House and likely the Senate, even if the final vote came after Trump was set to leave office on Jan. 20, 2021.
“But what I think I’m going to do, is I’m going to call him,” McCarthy said. “There’s a lot of different ramifications for that.”
“The only discussion I would have with him is that I think this will pass, and it would be my recommendation you should resign,” McCarthy said. “Um, I mean that would be my take, but I don’t think he would take it. But I don’t know.”
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