Kevin McCarthy Reportedly Tried to Get Liz Cheney to Apologize After Trump Impeachment Vote

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Reporting from last week’s House GOP meeting made clear that Liz Cheney refused to apologize for her vote to impeach Donald Trump.

And now there’s reporting that one of the people who suggested she apologize in the aftermath of that vote was House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy.

According to Axios, McCarthy — who recently went to Florida to meet with Trump — ” tried to get Liz Cheney to apologize for how she handled her vote to impeach” but she refused:

McCarthy, who hesitated in the first place about holding a vote to oust Cheney, told her privately hours before Wednesday’s caucus meeting that their members wanted to hear her say she was sorry. He also suggested it could sway some of her opponents. Cheney’s team, though, did a whip count, and she was confident she’d secure at least 142 votes, the sources said.

Some more pro-Trump Republicans were angry with Cheney and wanted her ousted from leadership, but that vote failed during the meeting.

McCarthy said last week he defended Cheney in the meeting, adding, “People can have differences of opinion that we can have a discussions about.”

Politico is similarly reporting McCarthy tried to get Cheney to apologize:

Before Wed’s conference meeting, McCarthy huddled w/ Cheney & gave her advice about how to get through it: he advised apologizing for how she handled impeachment vote (confirming @axios).

But she didn’t, nor did she need to: her team was already confident w/ their whip count.

— Melanie Zanona (@MZanona) February 7, 2021