McCarthy says he does not recall Jan. 6 Cassidy Hutchinson call on Trump going to Capitol

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said that he did not remember talking to former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson on Jan. 6, 2021, about the prospect of former President Trump going to the Capitol that day as Congress certified the 2020 Electoral College results.

“I don’t recall talking to her that day,” McCarthy said in a press conference Friday. He added that he did recall talking to former White House deputy chief of staff Dan Savino, and Trump’s son-in-law and former White House adviser Jared Kushner, as well as Trump himself, on Jan. 6 as the Capitol attack was underway and he and his staff were removed from his office.

“If I talked to her, I don’t remember it. If it was coming up here, I don’t think I wanted a lot of people coming up to the Capitol. But I don’t remember the conversation,” McCarthy said.

Hutchinson, who was an aide to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, testified under oath in a House Jan. 6 select committee hearing last month that McCarthy angrily called her after Trump urged supporters to march to the Capitol in his speech at the Ellipse and that he would go with them.

“He then explained, ‘The president just said he’s marching to the Capitol. You told me this whole week you aren’t coming up here, why would you lie to me?’” Hutchinson recalled during the hearing.

McCarthy said in his press conference Friday that he did not remember being specifically concerned about Trump marching to the Capitol.

“I didn’t watch it, so this is what is so confusing,” McCarthy said about Trump’s speech at the Ellipse. “I didn’t watch the speech. I was working. So I didn’t see what was said, I didn’t see what went on, until after the fact.”

“I had no idea he would come to the Capitol. I had no idea that he was even going to come to the Capitol,” McCarthy said.

Jan. 6 Select Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) suggested that the committee could look at phone records to verify if the call to Hutchinson was made.

“I think phone records and other things can be helpful in seeing whether or not calls were made. And there might be an opportunity for us to look at phone records, if we can, to see whether or not the call was made to him,” Thompson told reporters Friday.

He added that the committee does not have McCarthy’s phone records, and that the opportunity could come from looking at Hutchinson’s phone.

Rebecca Beitsch contributed.

Updated 12:32 p.m.