Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) on Monday minced no words with her reaction to ousted House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) wholehearted endorsement of Donald Trump for president.
McCarthy, retiring from Congress at the end of December, at the weekend told CBS’ Robert Costa that he’d back Republican front-runner Trump in the 2024 election and would also be willing to serve in a potential Trump cabinet.
“I can’t explain it,” Cheney told MSNBC’s Jen Psaki of McCarthy’s continued support of the twice-impeached, four-times-indicted former reality TV personality.
Cheney summed up McCarthy’s backing of Trump with two words: “Pathetic” and “sad.”
“There’s sort of an element of it doesn’t really matter what Donald Trump has done to the country, what Donald Trump has done to the Congress, Donald Trump has done to Kevin McCarthy,” she said.
It’s “just kind of going back for more,” Cheney continued, suggesting history will show McCarthy’s “unwillingness to do the right thing and each time that decision came, did real damage.”
McCarthy initially blamed Trump for the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, saying during a speech that the then-president “bears responsibility” for the violence.
But McCarthy then later visited Trump at his Mar-a-Lago home in a move many commentators have suggested was the first step of the former president’s rehabilitation among Republicans. He is now the clear favorite to become the GOP nominee in the 2024 election.
In Cheney’s new book “Oath and Honor,” the former lawmaker said McCarthy told her he’d gone to see Trump because he’d been told Trump wasn’t eating and was depressed. Trump, however, claimed last week that he’d actually been eating too much.
Watch the video here:
Cheney similarly called McCarthy “pathetic” last week when he announced his imminent departure from the House.
“I think that he’s a pathetic figure in many ways in our history,” she told conservative pundit Charlie Sykes on “The Bulwark Podcast.”