Yesterday, Wonkette wrote about the New York Times excerpt of the new book by Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns, This Will Not Pass, which reported that a solid handful of times after January 6, Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy at least considered being patriots and standing up for America, instead of being garbage cowards. Specifically it reported that McCarthy was going to push Trump to resign, but then didn't, because bawk bawk bawk bawk bawk.

In that excerpt, McCarthy issued the standard denials, but we didn't pay much attention to them, because fuck off. But then he spent a lot of yesterday protesting and denying.

Then Rachel Maddow dropped this tweet:

Oh.

You know what?

If you look at the original reporting, there's this turn of phrase that would suggest that mayyyyyyyyyybe a non-idiot person wouldn't want to spend a lot of time issuing overwrought denials, on the off chance the Times wasn't bluffing. See if you can spot the phrase:

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.

"According to an audio recording of the conversation obtained by The New York Times."

Later on:

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.

"According to the recording of the call, which runs just over an hour. The Times has reviewed the full recording of the conversation."

All this would suggest to our ears that there's a recording of the call and folks have it. Just a hunch!

But oh noooooooooo, McCarthy's spox said, all of this was a big fake news!

We don't guess the recording was sitting right there in the New York Times piece yesterday, but it sure as hell is there now. And yes, Maddow has it, and played it on her show last night. It is Kevin McCarthy talking and saying what they said he said. Even worse for McCarthy, he sounds like he is doing conspiracies with known devil woman Liz Cheney, who has been unpersoned by McCarthy's GOP, but back then was number three in command in House GOP leadership.

Here's that recording:

www.youtube.com

And according to what the journalists who wrote the book told Maddow, McCarthy and his spox might want to shut their faces with their denials, because this is just the beginning:

“I would just say for the book-buying audience out there, for people who work in politics: This is only the start,” said Martin, whose co-bylined report Thursday is derived from the upcoming book This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden and the Battle for America’s Future. “We have captured some of the most intimate and sensitive conversations in the extraordinary period following Jan. 6 on tape. And there is much more to come between now and when the book is out on May 3.”

Now look, we are not a scientist, but according to our rudimentary understanding of how things work, that statement suggests to us that when Martin says "this is only the start," what he means is that it was not the finish, and that "more to come" does not mean "less to come." Additionally, we'd guess that when he says they've got "intimate and sensitive conversations" from that "extraordinary period," that they do indeed have them, and it's not just Clarence and Ginni Thomas having traditional heterosexual naked pillow talk about her important coup-related work, unless they managed to get some of that too, in which case thank Christ it's just audio.

Maddow clarified that when you put McCarthy's denials next to the audio of the phone call, it sounds like he may perhaps not be telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help him God. The book authors confirmed that this all means Kevin McCarthy is fuckin' full of shit.

“Well, that’s a pretty diplomatic way of putting it, Rachel. It was a totally bogus denial, as your audience just heard,” Burns replied. “And I think that what this moment captures, in addition to everything Jonathan just said, and what this tape in particular captures, is just the staggering gulf between what Republican leaders say about Donald Trump in public, and to his face, and what they will say about him in private.”

Maddow then said she wouldn’t be surprised if there were calls for McCarthy’s resignation.

“But of course, he answers to his caucus,” she acknowledged.

Ooh hey, what about the part where McCarthy allegedly wished out loud that Twitter would do cancel culture tyranny to his own House members who were out there spreading Trump's Big Lie and defending the Capitol attack, and perhaps Lauren Boebert's name was mentioned? Rachel Maddow was just wanting to know if they had that recording.

Duh, they said.

“That is correct, and we have a lot more on tape from this period, which is at the highest levels of American politics,” Martin said. “It is sensitive, it is delicate, and it is high stakes. We have it all on tape, and it’s going to—I think—tell a very different story about this period than the story that many people are trying to tell right now.”

For all the current gossip on how this is playing among Republicans on Capitol Hill, check out Politico Playbook.

Short version: It's not going well for him.

Just really have a good day, Kevin McCarthy, you hear? From us at Wonkette to you. Best wishes.

[Daily Beast]

Follow Evan Hurst on Twitter right here!

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