‘I Don’t Trust a Thing Kevin McCarthy Says’: Kinzinger Rips His Party’s Leader for Claiming He Doesn’t Recall Jan. 6 Conversation

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) laced into House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) after the latter said he couldn’t remember a phone call with a White House aide he had just before the Capitol insurrection.

Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, testified last month before the committee. She stated under oath that McCarthy called her on Jan. 6, 2021, after Trump told a crowd of his supporters in Washington, D.C. that he would march to the Capitol in solidarity to protest the certification of the 2020 election that he lost.

Hutchinson told the committee:

[McCarthy] then explained the President just said he’s marching to the Capitol. ‘You told me this whole week you aren’t coming up here. Why would you lie to me?’ I said, ‘I wasn’t lying to you, sir. We’re not going to the Capitol.'”

Ultimately, Trump did not go to the Capitol.

On Friday, McCarthy stated he doesn’t remember any such interaction.

“I don’t recall talking to her that day,” McCarthy said. “I recall talking to [Trump aide] Dan Scavino, I recall talking to Jared [Kushner], I recall talking to Trump.”

Anderson Cooper asked Kinzinger, who serves on the Jan. 6 committee, about McCarthy’s comments on Friday’s installment of CNN’s AC360.

“As we heard, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy was asked about conversations between him and Cassidy Hutchinson,” said the host. “Obviously, she testified under oath. He said he didn’t remember them. He denies even watching the former president’s speech at the rally that day. What do you make of those comments?”

“I mean, look, I don’t trust a thing Kevin McCarthy says,” Kinzinger said of his own party’s leader. “I’ll be honest with you. Sometime about a year or two ago, he made the decision that his only goal was to become Speaker of the House. And he’ll do whatever he has to do, and he thinks that siding with the insurrectionists is the way to get there. Maybe it will make him speaker.”

Kinzinger went on to note Hutchinson testified under oath and called her “extremely credible.”

“The idea she would just come up with that story and make it up is ludicrous,” Kinzinger concluded.

Watch above via CNN.