![](https://adops.motherjones.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/warren-mccarthy-cnn.jpg?w=990)
Tom Williams/Getty
When asked about the Kevin McCarthy tapes on Sunday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren did not mince words. “Kevin McCarthy is a liar and a traitor,” Warren told CNN’s State of the Union. “This is outrageous.”
On Friday, the New York Times shared new reporting, including audio, which showed the House Minority Leader caught in a lie about Jan. 6. After the attack on the Capitol, according to the tapes, McCarthy said that his “recommendation” for then-president Donald Trump would be to resign. The tapes contradict McCarthy’s denials that he’d ever pushed Trump to resign.
On Sunday, Warren also said McCarthy’s apparent lies are indicative of a larger problem in the GOP regarding Jan. 6. “That is really the illness that pervades the Republican leadership right now,” she said. “They say one thing to the American public and something else in private.”
“They understand that it is wrong what happened—an attempt to overthrow our government—and the Republicans instead want to continue to try to figure out how to make [the] 2020 election different instead of spending their energy on how it is that we go forward in order to build an economy, in order to make this country work better for the people who sent us to Washington.”
“Shame on Kevin McCarthy,” Warren concluded.
"Kevin McCarthy is a Liar and a traitor." @ewarren reacts to new audio of McCarthy talking about former President Trump's role in the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection. #CNNSOTU @CNNSotu pic.twitter.com/gHnxfPoEva
— CNN (@CNN) April 24, 2022