(Tony Sifert, Headline USA) As the shamelessly partisan J6 Committee seeks to turn its June 9 hearing into prime-time Reality TV, President Donald Trump has publicly backed House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., in an Oz-like endorsement of apparent political expediency.
“Congressman Kevin McCarthy is an outstanding Representative for the people of California, and a strong and fearless Leader of the House Republican Conference,” Trump wrote in a statement.
“Kevin McCarthy has my Complete and Total Endorsement for California’s 20th Congressional District!” the former president continued.
The endorsement comes as something of a surprise in the aftermath of the New York Times‘ release of audio suggesting that McCarthy told Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., that he planned to encourage Trump to resign after the events of Jan. 6, according to the Washington Examiner.
“What he did is unacceptable,” McCarthy told Cheney. “Nobody can defend that and nobody should defend it.”
However, according to Axios, McCarthy is among the handful of Republicans that Trump is relying on to “drive counterprograming” after Thursday’s televised J6 Inquisition hearing.
The J6 Committee has hired James Goldston, former president of ABC News, to produce “Thursday’s 8 p.m. ET hearing as if it were a blockbuster investigative special.”
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, co-written with Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, McCarthy has already suggested that the J6 Committee is “weaponizing majority rule.”
“With no effective check on its power, the Select Committee is trampling on fundamental Constitutional rights,” McCarthy and Jordan wrote. “It is investigating the political speech of private citizens and demanding access to their personal records and private communications.”
Chronicles columnist Pedro Gonzalez attacked Trump’s endorsement on Twitter.
“Trump endorsing Frank Luntz bunk buddy Kevin McCarthy, instead of using his political capital to undermine bad GOP leadership, is a sign that Trump has not learned much after all this time about who is and is not America First,” Gonzalez wrote.
Too many people have convinced themselves that endorsing the swamp is actually playing 4D chess with the swamp. It’s not. McCarthy is worse than awful.
— Pedro L. Gonzalez (@emeriticus) June 5, 2022
