Retiring Sen. Blunt ‘sort of surprised’ McCarthy thought Trump resigning would be ‘realistic’

On Sunday, retiring Sen. Roy Blunt, a Republican from Missouri, said that he was “sort of surprised” by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy contemplating asking then-President Trump to resign following the January 6th attack on the Capital.

McCarthy, a Republican from California, was caught in a lie after originally denying that he planned to encourage Trump to resign following the riot. 

Blunt highlighted McCarthy’s close relationship with Trump during an appearance on MSNBC’s “Meet the Press.” “I haven’t talked to the majority leader in the House about this, but he’s been close [to] Trump,” Blunt said while mistakenly referring to the House minority leader.

“Frankly, when I first heard this, I thought anybody who’s been as close to President Trump as Kevin McCarthy would know that the last think that Donald Trump was going to do was either resign or quit.” 

Blunt pointed to the fact that the riot took place less than two weeks prior to Trump leaving office, claiming that the idea of Trump resigning was an unrealistic one. “There was no way that was going to happen,” Blunt continued, “and I was, frankly, sort of surprised that Kevin would even suggest it might be a realistic suggestion to make to President Trump.”

When pressed on whether McCarthy has a “credibility problem” after the New York Times released an audio that proved McCarthy’s denial of his plans to be incorrect, Blunt added, “Well, you’ll have to ask him that. My guess is you don’t remember every conversation you’re in exactly the way it occurred. And maybe you remember it the way you wanted it to occur.” 

After noting that he has served in both the House and Senate, Blunt took aim at House GOP leadership. “I’ve never been in a leadership meeting where you felt like you couldn’t think out loud,” he said. “And apparently they have a leadership where you can’t think out loud.”