Whatever House GOP leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is doing apparently isn’t working. Sure, he’s gone to bat for the Trump wing of the GOP — which is most of it — over and over in the time since last year’s Capitol riot, but members of the crowd at a Trump rally in Wyoming on Saturday night booed him anyway.
The booing rang out as a pre-recorded message from McCarthy began to play. It also appeared to coincide with a preceding mention of the leading Republican. McCarthy taped the message that played Saturday night to support Harriet Hageman, a Trump-endorsed challenger to Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) in the ongoing GOP primary for the House seat Cheney currently holds. Cheney has been consistently outspoken about the dangers of Trump’s threats to democracy, and the former president obviously isn’t exactly known for tolerating dissent. Cheney also currently helps lead the House panel investigating the Capitol riot, which has actually subpoenaed McCarthy. McCarthy has been against Cheney for awhile — he backed replacing her as House GOP conference chair with Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), an only increasingly far-right figure.
McCarthy initially publicly acknowledged Trump’s responsibility for the Capitol riot — and again, dissent is a no-go in Trump World. Trump “bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob rioters,” McCarthy said days after the violence unfolded. McCarthy was also recorded telling fellow members of House GOP leadership in the days after the riot that he would recommend to then-President Trump that he should resign. But McCarthy now sticks closely with Trump, who’s maintaining a show of camaraderie with McCarthy — “He made a call. I heard the call. I didn’t like the call… But almost immediately as you know, because he came here and we took a picture right there — you know, the support was very strong,” Trump told The Wall Street Journal.
But many of the ex-president’s supporters seem unlikely to be too in touch with the nuances of the public relationship between Trump and McCarthy. It’s Trump supporters at the Capitol who wanted to hang Mike Pence — who’d been Trump’s second-in-command for four years! So the rhetorical mob seems clearly ready to turn on just about anyone on a whim. Check out the booing below or over at this link:
Are they booing McCarthy? pic.twitter.com/mbX4s65D3k
— Acyn (@Acyn) May 28, 2022
Photo via Gage Skidmore, available under a Creative Commons License
