By Xander Landen
Weekend Staff Writer
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A Republican strategist criticized House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy for threatening telecommunications companies that comply with records requests from the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack, arguing that the GOP leader is "trying to bury" the facts.
"I think the threats are basically grandstanding, especially for an audience of one, meaning the former president. We all know that Kevin McCarthy basically does what the former president wants him to do—in this case, it's go after Big Tech like Donald Trump did when he was president," the strategist, Susan Del Percio, said on MSNBC Sunday.
"This is all about operating from fear," she said later in the interview.
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"They are trying to delay this as long as possible because eventually, I think the truth will come out. But Kevin McCarthy is scared of the facts and that's why he's trying to bury them."
The House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection has not issued subpoenas. But on Monday, it instructed 35 companies—including telecommunications and social media businesses—to preserve records that may be relevant to its investigation.
On Tuesday, McCarthy said if companies that comply with "the Democrat order to turn over private information, they are in violation of federal law and subject to losing their ability to operate in the United States."
"If companies still choose to violate federal law, a Republican majority will not forget and will stand with Americans to hold them fully accountable under the law," McCarthy said in a statement.
On Friday, 11 House Republicans said they would take legal action against companies if they comply with records requests from the committee.
"The January 6 Select Committee has neither statutory nor constitutional authority to secretly demand phone companies turn over their customers' personal records," Representative Andy Biggs, an Arizona Republican, said in a statement.
"This power-hungry, smear-campaign of a committee knows this request is a blatant overreach of their congressional authority."
Representative Adam Kinzinger, a Republican from Illinois who sits on the House select committee, said Sunday that McCarthy's warning to the telecommunications companies was "really bad politics."
"Is it obstruction? I don't know what is considered obstruction of a congressional investigation, but I would certainly recommend he never go there again," he said, according to Politico.
ON MSNBC, Del Percio said she thinks "the idea of retribution though by a political party to a business who's complying with a legal subpoena is a very dangerous thing."
"And it's actually totally disruptive to our democratic process. Our government's not supposed to interfere with our business with political threats," she added.
Newsweek has reached out to McCarthy's office for comment.
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