Donna Brazile, the former chair of the Democratic National Committee, has said the revelations around the audio clips of Kevin McCarthy show the House Minority Leader is "terrified" of Donald Trump.
Brazile appeared on ABC's This Week on Sunday to discuss the unearthed clips revealing McCarthy discussing with GOP congresswoman Liz Cheney his plans to ask the former president to resign in the wake of the Capitol attack.
McCarthy is heard telling Cheney he believed Trump would be impeached and could even be convicted in the Senate over the attack which the then-president was accused of inciting.
McCarthy originally denied the reports made by The New York Times before MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show aired audio recordings of McCarthy and Cheney's conversation.
"The only discussion I would have with him is that I think this [impeachment] will pass, and it would be my recommendation you should resign," McCarthy is heard saying on January 10, four days after the Capitol riot.
Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who also appeared alongside Brazile on This Week, dismissed suggestions that his comments could hinder McCarthy's ambition to become the House Speaker if the GOP regain control of the chamber in the upcoming midterms, suggesting voters will not be talking about the issue come November.
When asked whether she thought the audio recordings matter to the public, Brazile said "absolutely" as they showed that the top Republican in the House of Representatives is "terrified" of Trump.
"I think he's terrified of telling the truth in terms of what he did in those five to seven days following the mob attack that everyone knows that President Trump, former President Trump, inspired when he assembled that group at the Ellipse and said 'I'll meet you down there. Go down there,'" Brazile said.
"Kevin McCarthy is afraid of Trump. He needs Trump in order to become speaker of the House. And he's afraid of turning off his base," she said.
Brazile also suggested that what we "should all be talking about" regarding McCarthy's comments is the claim that he asked if tech companies could suspend the social media accounts of GOP lawmakers who supported Trump's false claims the 2020 election was rigged during a call with top Republicans.
"Can't they take their Twitter accounts away, too?" McCarthy reportedly asked.
"Tell me that Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert and others are not upset that Kevin McCarthy insinuated that they should be taken off Twitter and Facebook. That's the real story," Brazile said.
McCarthy initially denied The New York Times story—which is based on a forthcoming book by two of its reporters, Alex Burns and Jonathan Martin—as "totally false and wrong."
McCarthy said in a statement: "It comes as no surprise that the corporate media is obsessed with doing everything it can to further a liberal agenda. This promotional book tour is no different. If the reporters were interested in truth why would they ask for comment after the book was printed?
"The past year-and-a-half have proven that our country was better off when President Trump was in the White House and rather than address the real issues facing Americans, the corporate media is more concerned with profiting from manufactured political intrigue from politically-motivated sources," McCarthy added.
Elsewhere, Cheney, one of only two Republicans on the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 attack, denied that she was the one who leaked the audio recordings of her conversation with McCarthy to the media.
"Representative Cheney did not record or leak the tape and does not know how the reporters got it," her office said in a statement.
McCarthy has been contacted for comment.
