In Home District, McCarthy Faces Some Backlash From the Right - The New York Times - 0 views
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As Congress prepared to vote on impeachment for a second time, David Bynum reached out to his former boss — Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the Republican leader in the House.
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“They said, ‘We’re getting way more calls from people who are upset that he’s not doing more to support Donald Trump,’” Mr. Bynum said.
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Mr. McCarthy has been pilloried nationally and throughout California for being loyal to Mr. Trump to the bitter end — voting to overturn the election results hours after a mob of the president’s supporters stormed the Capitol and urging censure of the president instead of impeachment.
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Some Republicans said Mr. McCarthy, the son of an assistant chief with the Bakersfield Fire Department, has done too much for conservative voters in the region for them to abandon him. They believe his delicate navigation of the events in Washington in recent days — speaking out against impeachment but saying the president bears responsibility for the attack on Congress by rioters — would not hurt him significantly in his district as he eyes becoming speaker of the House in two years.
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“You’re going to have some Republicans who like Trump so much that this is going to be a deal breaker for them,” Mr. Campbell said, referring to Mr. McCarthy’s support of censure and assertion that Mr. Trump bears responsibility for the attack on the Capitol. “I don’t think that’s a majority. You’re also going to have other Republicans who feel that McCarthy has been our leader for so long, and he’s never let us down, and they’re going to give him the benefit of the doubt.”
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But since the rioting and impeachment, Mr. McCarthy is also facing attacks from the right. Many conservatives in Bakersfield said they believe the election was stolen from Mr. Trump and that the president did not incite the mob attack. Mr. McCarthy’s remarks pinning the blame on Mr. Trump for the attack and batting down false suggestions that antifa was behind the riot shocked and angered many Republicans.