On Thursday, following a claims from an upcoming book that both House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) privately wanted former President Donald Trump to resign in the aftermath of the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, former Tea Party congressman Joe Walsh criticized the pair of them for not having the courage to publicly come forward with these views — a move which could theoretically have been the tipping point to give Republicans the votes to convict Trump in the second impeachment trial.
Walsh, a frequent conservative critic of the direction of his longtime party, slammed the whole GOP as "a party of people who were 'privately' outraged, but 'publicly' silent," and called them "total f**king cowards."
This will be history\u2019s well-deserved verdict on the Republican Party: A Party of people who were \u201cprivately\u201d outraged, but \u201cpublicly\u201d silent. A Party of people who were total fucking cowards.https://twitter.com/alexburnsnyt/status/1517096415733891074\u00a0\u2026— Joe Walsh (@Joe Walsh) 1650544765
McCarthy, who reportedly argued with Trump on the day in a phone call, and McConnell both publicly accused the president of fueling the attack at the time, but neither called for him to resign and both voted against his impeachment and conviction. Even without their support, ten House Republicans and seven Senate Republicans voted against Trump in the proceedings.
Months later, their anger had seemingly vanished and both made clear they would back the former president if he chose to run again. McCarthy even threw his weight behind ousting Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), one of Trump's strongest Republican critics, from GOP leadership.
