Kevin McCarthy Uses First Full Week in Power to Assure Nation He’s Still Donald Trump’s Lapdog

After Donald Trump was impeached for the second time, Republicans had an opportunity to find him guilty and prevent him from ever running for public office again. Instead, they chose to let him get away with everything, i.e. the incitement of a violent riot because the 2020 election didn’t go his way. That was pretty offensive to those who believe there should be consequences for trying to burn democracy to the ground and getting people killed in the process—but don’t dwell on Trump’s acquittal for too long, because for their next trick, Republicans want to pretend that the ex-president’s second impeachment literally never happened. And maybe even his first one too!

On Thursday, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, fresh off of losing the leadership vote an astonishing 14 times, said he was willing to look into expunging one or both of Trump’s impeachments. (As a reminder, the first one, in 2019, was over trying to extort Ukraine for his own political gain.) Speaking to reporters, McCarthy said he “understand[s] why members would want to bring that forward.” Then he listed some other priorities for GOP lawmakers, like immigration and the economy, in an attempt to suggest that the party in power actually wants to govern and not spend their time settling scores, before adding: “But I understand why individuals want to do it, and we’d look at it.”

As The Washington Post notes, McCarthy didn’t make it clear if he would go for a two-for-one deal and try to strike both impeachments from the official record. However, as the Post put it, he “expressed sympathy for Trump regarding allegations of colluding with Russians in his 2016 campaign and other things Trump ‘went through.’” Naturally, McCarthy did not touch on the fact that days after the 2021 insurrection, he publicly stated on the House floor that Trump “bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob rioters” and “should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding.” Or that, in the immediate aftermath of the attack, McCarthy reportedly told colleagues that Trump’s behavior on January 6 was “atrocious and totally wrong” and that Trump was at fault for “inciting people” to attack the Capitol building; that he wanted to know if there was any hope of the then president’s Cabinet removing him from office via the 25th Amendment; and, later, that he was going to advise Trump to resign.

Before Republicans won a slim majority in the House last November, representatives Elise Stefanik and Markwayne Mullin introduced a resolution to expunge Trump’s second impeachment, with Stefanik shamelessly saying that “President Donald Trump was rightfully acquitted, and it is past time to expunge Democrats’ sham smear against not only President Trump’s name, but against millions of patriots across the country.” With Democrats in power at the time, the resolution did not receive a vote.

As New York magazine’s Ed Kilgore notes, once upon a time, Stefanik was a relative moderate compared to many of her colleagues, before tacking to the racist right. As a reward, and for her loyalty, Trump is reportedly considering her, among several other names, as a 2024 running mate.

As for McCarthy, his ass-kissery resulted in Trump telling Republicans last week to “VOTE FOR KEVIN, CLOSE THE DEAL.” (McCarthy would go on to lose several more times before eking out a win on the 15th vote, but the alliance is clear.)

Meanwhile, as House leadership prepares to look into pretending Trump’s impeachments never happened, Marjorie Taylor Greene has already called for Joe Biden’s impeachment.