Donald Trump’s stranglehold on the GOP was on full display this week as House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy sought to make amends with the mercurial former president after a leaked audio revealed he considered urging Trump to resign after last year’s Capitol insurrection.
McCarthy’s call to Trump — and his rapid outreach to the former president and House colleagues in the hours after the New York Times dropped the recording — reveal the minority leader’s complex and often tortured relationship with Trump and the lingering fear gripping many in the GOP of publicly crossing him.