Throughout the identical Jan. 10 dialog when he mentioned he would name on Mr. Trump to resign, Mr. McCarthy advised different G.O.P. leaders he wished the massive tech corporations would strip some Republican lawmakers of their social media accounts, as Twitter and Fb had completed with Mr. Trump. Members resembling Lauren Boebert of Colorado had completed a lot to stoke paranoia concerning the 2020 election and made offensive feedback on-line concerning the Capitol assault.
“We will’t put up with that,” Mr. McCarthy mentioned, including, “Can’t they take their Twitter accounts away, too?”
Mr. McCarthy “by no means mentioned that individual members ought to be faraway from Twitter,” Mr. Bednar mentioned.
Different Republican leaders within the Home agreed with Mr. McCarthy that the president’s habits deserved swift punishment. Consultant Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the second-ranking Home Republican, mentioned on one name that it was time for the G.O.P. to ponder a “post-Trump Republican Home,” whereas Consultant Tom Emmer of Minnesota, the top of the occasion’s Home marketing campaign committee, urged censuring Mr. Trump.
But not one of the males adopted by means of on their robust discuss in these personal conversations.
Within the following days, Mr. McCarthy heard from some Republican lawmakers who suggested towards confronting Mr. Trump. In a single group dialog, Consultant Invoice Johnson of Ohio cautioned that conservative voters again residence “go ballistic” in response to criticism of Mr. Trump, demanding that Republicans as an alternative practice their denunciations on Democrats, resembling Hillary Clinton and Hunter Biden.
“I’m simply telling you that that’s the form of factor that we’re coping with, with our base,” Mr. Johnson mentioned.
When solely 10 Home Republicans joined with Democrats to assist impeaching Mr. Trump on Jan. 13, the message to Mr. McCarthy was clear.
By the top of the month, he was pursuing a rapprochement with Mr. Trump, visiting him at Mar-a-Lago and posing for {a photograph}. (“I didn’t know they had been going to take an image,” Mr. McCarthy mentioned, considerably apologetically, to 1 pissed off lawmaker.)
