Rick Wilson took a look at House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's standing after tapes revealed that the California Republican was lying about wanting Donald Trump to resign over the Jan. 6 insurrection.
McCarthy flatly denied that he had discussed asking the former president to step down, but a recording showed that he had talked about the possibility at length with Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), who he later punished for backing an investigation into the U.S. Capitol riot --and Wilson said the episode would doom his political ambitions.
"Let's drill down a little deeper on the doom @gopleader has brought upon himself tonight," Wilson tweeted. "It's a lesson about his character, and that of today's Republican Party."
1/ Let's drill down a little deeper on the doom @gopleader has brought upon himself tonight. \n\nIt's a lesson about his character, and that of today's Republican Party.\n\nFirst, Kevin has long postured himself to donors -- and @reedgalen had this from a *major* donor a few weeks...— Rick Wilson (@Rick Wilson) 1650597479
Wilson said the California Republican had tried to sell himself to donors as a bulwark against the "Trump wing" of the GOP, while also publicly supporting the twice-impeached former president, but he said McCarthy's balancing act had been exposed.
"The desperate tribalism, the irrational fear of 'Trump or Full Sharia Gay Marriage Trans Communism' infects them," Wilson tweeted. "They want to believe Kevin, and as a king of frat-bro backslapping, he smells like their kind. He's done this [repeatedly]; piss on Trump privately, grovel in public. But @gopleader is something else. He's a coward. Like so many of the GOP who still cling to the illusion that they run the show, his rank fear clings to him like the corpse-funk in Bannon's basement."
Wilson said that McCarthy had gotten so used to lying that he didn't think twice about denying comments that had been recorded, but the former GOP strategist said he never had a chance to become speaker of the House with the sort of Republicans who might take back the majority this year.
"Since January 6th, Kevin has lived on borrowed time," Wilson tweeted. "Trump's pattern is to demand, humiliate, pretend to accept the apology of his sycophants, and repeat. The majority of the GOP caucus are already nihilist Trumphadis. In just two cycles, Fall of the House of Kevin was inevitable. After November, the GOP Caucus will look even more like Gaetz, Gosar, Greene, and the rest of the mutant parade. Jim Jordan bided his time, and now will be the clear frontrunner for Leader. Kevin is from the Before. He lacks purity."
Donors might keep giving to him, but Wilson said they can't stop the pro-Trump wing of the party from taking control.
"Jim Jordan will give them Impeachmentpalooze (they GET the spectacle), and legislation to punish businesses who won't bend the knee. (cf Ron DeSantis)," Wilson tweeted. "Expect show trials for CRT, BLM, LGBT, voter fraud, groooooomers, and the rest of their catalog of imaginary demons. McCarthy was always a lower-quartile intellect on a good day, but he knew the rules of DC power. Those rules are gone. That era is dead. I've written about this transition for seven years now as every predicate of conservatism has been undone."
"'Nationalist populism' is a code for 'authoritarian statism,'" Wilson added. "Every corporate dollar invested with Kevin now is a contingent joke, a phantasm. All these whale GOP donors -- we'll post a list -- are writing checks for a Congress Kevin can't deliver."
