- House GOP Leader
Kevin McCarthy was privately willing to get rid of Trump, per The New York Times. - McCarthy reportedly planned on asking the former president to resign after
January 6 .
Despite publicly remaining loyal to former President
"I've had it with this guy," McCarthy told Republican leaders shortly after the Capitol siege, the Times reported Thursday.
McCarthy also explored removing Trump through the
Sharing reporting from their forthcoming book "This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden and the Battle for America's Future," Times reporters Alex Burns and Jonathan Martin's account is based on hundreds of interviews with lawmakers and public officials.
McCarthy spokesperson Mark Bednar denied that the House GOP leader called on Trump to resign.
"McCarthy never said he'd call Trump to say he should resign," Bednar told the Times.
Later on Thursday morning, McCarthy released his own statement praising Trump and denying the reporting by Burns and Martin.
—Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) $4
In a January 10 meeting with GOP leadership, McCarthy said the party should take advantage of House Democrats' efforts to impeach Trump for a second time, according to Burns and Martin.
"What he did is unacceptable. Nobody can defend that and nobody should defend it," McCarthy said at the meeting, according to the Times.
He then explained how he would deliver the news to Trump.
"I think this will pass," McCarthy said of the impeachment resolution, "and it would be my recommendation you should resign."
The
Republican Rep. Bill Johnson of Ohio told McCarthy that voters in his district would "go ballistic" if the leader criticized Trump, much less told him to resign.
"I'm just telling you that that's the kind of thing that we're dealing with, with our base," Johnson told McCarthy, according to the Times.
McCarthy was not one of the $4 following the Capitol riot, but $4, an entirely ceremonial punishment.