If one wanted to point to a certain instant in time that best encapsulates Trump’s personality, values, and darkly psychopathic tendencies, a strong candidate would be that conversation between Kevin McCarthy and then President Trump on January 6th, when McCarthy screamed into the phone to have Trump calm the crowd down and get them out, with Trump dispassionately and inhumanely retorting; “Well Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are.”
It is pure Trump. If McCarthy had to die to get Trump what he wanted, then McCarthy had to die.
But now, Politico’s Playbook has excerpts from a new book written by Robert Draper, “Weapons of Mass Delusion: When the Republican Party Lost Its Mind” which provides us new details about McCarthy’s immediate retort, and it is just chilling. McCarthy replied to Trump,
“More upset?” McCarthy said, according to that account. “THEY’RE TRYING TO F*CKING KILL ME!”
So telling. When an ally was hunkered down in real danger and needed Trump’s help, Trump was still measuring who was “most loyal” to Trump, and at that moment, McCarthy wasn’t “upset enough” about Trump losing the election. Trump comes across as a monster. We knew that. We didn’t know that McCarthy was in such deep fear for his life that he believed the crowds were there to kill him.
The phone call likely remains the best window into how it felt to be in the Capitol that day. Even after all the testimony, all the video, Josh Hawley literally running for his life from the people he supported with a raised fist earlier in the day, it’s probably still difficult for those of us who only have video of what happened inside the Capitol to appreciate just how terrifying it must have been. huddled in offices, wondering if you were targeted and wondering how it might end.
@JasonMiciak believes a day without learning is a day not lived. He is a political writer, features writer, author, and attorney. He is a Canadian-born dual citizen who spent his teen and college years in the Pacific Northwest and has since lived in seven states. He now enjoys life as a single dad of a young girl, writing from the beaches of the Gulf Coast. He loves crafting his flower pots, cooking, and currently studies philosophy of science, religion, and non-math principles behind quantum mechanics and cosmology. Please feel free to contact for speaking engagements or any concerns.