The moral rot in the Republican Party leadership

Lie of omission: (legal definition) an intentional failure to tell the truth in a situation requiring disclosure; (lay definition) also known as a continuing misrepresentation or quote mining (quoting out of context), occurs when an important fact is left out in order to foster a misconception. Lying by omission includes the failure to correct pre-existing misconceptions

The New York Times writes:

In the days after the attack, Representative Kevin McCarthy planned to tell Mr. Trump to resign. Senator Mitch McConnell told allies impeachment was warranted. But their fury faded fast. 

In the days after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol building, the two top Republicans in Congress, Representative Kevin McCarthy and Senator Mitch McConnell, told associates they believed President Trump was responsible for inciting the deadly riot and vowed to drive him from politics.

Mr. McCarthy went so far as to say he would push Mr. Trump to resign immediately: “I’ve had it with this guy,” he told a group of Republican leaders, according to an audio recording of the conversation obtained by The New York Times.

But within weeks both men backed off an all-out fight with Mr. Trump because they feared retribution from him and his political movement. Their drive to act faded fast as it became clear it would mean difficult votes that would put them at odds with most of their colleagues.

“I didn’t get to be leader by voting with five people in the conference,” Mr. McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, told a friend.  

Mr. McConnell’s office declined to comment. In a statement on Twitter early Thursday, Mr. McCarthy called the reporting “totally false and wrong.” His spokesman, Mark Bednar, denied that the Republican leader told colleagues he would urge Mr. Trump to leave office. “McCarthy never said he’d call Trump to say he should resign,” Mr. Bednar said.

But the recording tells a different story.

Screenshot of the recorded McCarthy phone call

Mr. McCarthy did not immediately respond to a request for comment after The Times published the audio clip on Thursday night.  

Mr. McCarthy said he would tell Mr. Trump of the impeachment resolution: “I think this will pass, and it would be my recommendation you should resign,” he said, according to the recording of the call, which runs just over an hour. The Times has reviewed the full recording of the conversation.

He acknowledged it was unlikely Mr. Trump would follow that suggestion.

“What he did is unacceptable. Nobody can defend that and nobody should defend it,” he told the group.   

But in a brief window after the storming of the Capitol, Mr. McCarthy contemplated a total break with Mr. Trump and his most extreme supporters.

During the same Jan. 10 conversation when he said he would call on Mr. Trump to resign, Mr. McCarthy told other G.O.P. leaders he wished the big tech companies would strip some Republican lawmakers of their social media accounts, as Twitter and Facebook had done with Mr. Trump. Members such as Lauren Boebert of Colorado had done so much to stoke paranoia about the 2020 election and made offensive comments online about the Capitol attack.

“We can’t put up with that,” Mr. McCarthy said, adding, “Can’t they take their Twitter accounts away, too?” (emphasis added)

Neo-fascist Republican power rests on a foundation of lies, deceit and treason

The recording mentioned in the article is a 1:35 phone call that the NYT obtained and inserted in the article. In accord with the now standard Republican KYMS propaganda tactic in the face of bad news, neither McConnell nor McCarthy would comment. No surprise there. 

KYMS = keep your mouth shut; in politics, usually a form of a lie(s) of omission 

when in the face of political bad news or politically inconvenient fact or truth

The McConnell comment, “I didn’t get to be leader by voting with five people in the conference” shows that he is more interested in personal power than defending either truth or democracy. That is pure moral rot in the Republican Party political leadership.

McCarthy denial that he discussed asking the ex-president to resign is a lie. He did discuss it and the recorded phone is proof. McCarthy also shows that he is more interested in personal power than defending either truth or democracy. That is more moral rot in the Republican Party political leadership. 

Hence, the American people get an insulting, arrogant KYMS response from both morally rotted GOP congressional leaders. The entire GOP leadership is solidly neo-fascist, not pro-democracy.