Maddow drills down on Capitol insurrection detail: 'I don't understand how this isn't the headline'
The host of "The Rachel Maddow Show" on MSNBC focused on a key detail in a New York Timesarticle on House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).
"Can we talk about what else we learned about the House Leader Kevin McCarthy and what he himself did on January 6th? I don't understand how this isn't the headline," she explained.
"This anecdote -- totally new to me and as far as I can tell, previously unreported -- it comes 34 paragraphs in to a story that is 39 paragraphs long," she said. "I'll read it to you verbatim."
"After the House chamber was evacuated on Jan. 6, Mr. McCarthy retreated to his Capitol office with a colleague, Representative Bruce Westerman, Republican of Arkansas. When it became evident the rioters were breaking in, Mr. McCarthy's security detail insisted he leave. But Mr. Westerman was left behind in Mr. McCarthy's inner work area, he said in a recent interview," the article reported. "For protection, Mr. Westerman said he commandeered a Civil War sword from an office display, barricaded himself in Mr. McCarthy's private bathroom and waited out the siege while crouched on the toilet."
"Friends describe the postelection period as traumatic for Mr. McCarthy, who publicly perpetuated the fiction that Mr. Trump had won while privately asking him to stop," The Times reported.
Maddow chuckled after reading from the article.
"Wait, traumatic for Mr. McCarthy?" she asked. "For Kevin? I mean, he's the one who got rushed out of there because the rioters were breaking in."
Maddow explained, "He brought another member of Congress to his office with him and then it was like, 'Oh, no, Bruce, we came here to hide but the rioters, they're inside now, they are coming for us. Bye Bruce, I'll see you later, I'm out of here. There's a toilet in there, maybe good luck crouching on top of the toilet, they won't see your feet if they look under the door.'"
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