The former New Jersey governor got into an argument with ABC News correspondent Jonathan Karl on Sunday about the particulars of the audio, discovered by a pair of New York Times reporters, and what it means for McCarthy and the GOP outside the nation's capital.
"The voters across the country could care less about this," Christie told Karl. "This is the rearview mirror stuff that the American people don't care about when they're paying five dollars a gallon for gas, when they got 8% inflation and can't buy their groceries, and when there's crime all over the streets of our major cities. They just don't care, Jon. And that's why the story doesn't get any traction outside Washington, D.C."
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The audio was collected for the forthcoming book This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden and the Battle for America’s Future, which is expected to publish May 3. The authors, New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns, also have documented conversations with GOP leadership. McCarthy said he would tell Trump to step down days after the riot.
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McCarthy, a California Republican, dismissed the report as written, calling it "totally false and wrong," but then, audio was released on MSNBC in which he was heard telling GOP colleagues on Jan. 10 that he would advise Trump to resign. In the GOP leadership call, McCarthy said he firmly believed impeachment would pass the House and admitted that there was a "chance" Trump would be convicted by the Senate.
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McCarthy has also denied that he ever asked Trump to resign, however. He spoke with the former president after the audio was released, and Trump announced that their relationship remained intact.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi slammed McCarthy on Friday, portraying him as inconsistent in his views regarding the Jan. 6 riot and whether certain members of Congress were involved in inciting the violence.
“It was interesting to me that the leader talked about the concern that he had, that he was concerned about his members causing danger here, and at the same time, complaining that we had magnetometers here to keep guns off the floor of the House," the California Democrat said. "It just seemed inconsistent to me."
With Republicans expected to recover control of the House this fall, McCarthy is a top contender to be the next speaker, though some of his GOP colleagues and media pundits on the Right have struck him over the controversy.
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