Kevin McCarthy Called For Capitol Riot Probe After Jan. 6 in New Audio: ‘We Cannot Just Sweep This Under the Rug’

Kevin McCarthy demanded a bipartisan investigation into the storming of the U.S. Capitol just five days after a pro-Trump mob delayed the certification of the 2020 election.

The House minority leader has been vocal in his opposition to the House select committee investigating the riot. In January, after he was asked to voluntarily speak to his House colleagues, he declined.

“As a representative and the leader of the minority party, it is with neither regret nor satisfaction that I have concluded to not participate with this select committee’s abuse of power that stains this institution today and will harm it going forward,” McCarthy said in a statement, NBC reported.

On the eve of the committee’s primetime hearing in front of the country, new audio has dropped of McCarthy calling for an investigation into the riot.

On CNN’s OutFront Wednesday, host Erin Burnett aired portions of three clips between McCarthy and his GOP colleagues. In the clips, McCarthy demanded accountability over the riot.

In one clip, the California Republican said,

When they started breaking into my office, myself and the staff got removed from the office. In doing so, I made a phone call to the president, telling him what was going on, asking him to tell these people to stop, to make a video and go out. And I was very intense and very loud about it.

In a subsequent clip, McCarthy was adamant the riot could not simply be forgotten.

“We cannot just sweep this under the rug. We need to know why it happened, who did it and people need to be held accountable for it,” he said. “And I’m committed to make sure that happens.”

In one final clip, the ranking House Republican called for a bipartisan investigation. He said:

We need to know and have the facts exactly what happened and when. This needs to be done in a targeted way that doesn’t need to distract from keeping the Capitol safe over the coming weeks. But what we learned is, that people can get in. We learned that people planned. We need to have all the facts, especially for all of us. We should do it in a bipartisan manner.

The clips were obtained by New York Times reporters Alexander Burns and Jonathan Martin.

Listen above, via CNN.

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