GOP House Leader Kevin McCarthy has spent the last few days enduring relentless criticism on Twitter after he claimed that "everybody across the country has some responsibility" for the January 6 Capitol riot.
McCarthy's convoluted road to the Twitter onslaught began a week after the insurrection, on January 13. That day, he did something relatively rare for House Republicans.
He criticized former President Donald Trump.
Even after Capitol riot, which many critics have argued became violent and chaotic as a result of Trump's incendiary rhetoric and months of lies about the 2020 election, most Republican lawmakers held back from criticizing Trump. Many doubled down and continued to perpetuate lies about the election.
So it was a rare site when McCarthy, while speaking on the House floor during the impeachment debate, acknowledged Trump's role in the insurrection.
"The President bears responsibility for Wednesday's attack on Congress by mob rioters."
"He should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding. These facts require immediate action by President Trump."
But, as the Huffington Post reported, McCarthy later refuted his own claim when asked by reporters.
So in a recent interview with Greta Van Susteran, McCarthy was asked to clarify his dissonance.
Among other things, McCarthy made the ludicrous argument pinning the insurrection on "everybody across the country."
In hindsight, McCarthy didn't think his response to Van Susteren was quite up to snuff.
So he turned to Twitter to offer what he hoped would be a helpful clarification.
But that's not at all how that went down.
Instead, McCarthy's clarifying Tweet only served to further publicize the fact he blamed the riot on everybody instead of the select group that actually gathered to form the mob: Trump supporters, QAnon conspiracy theorists, White Supremacists, White nationalists and every overlapping combination of those like the Proud Boys and 3 Percenters.
Needless to say, as Huffington Post also noted, Twitter blasted him for not only his original comment to Van Susteren but also his general historic support of Trump's anti-democratic rhetoric and lies about the 2020 election.
Democratic Representative Jim McGovern of Massachusetts was not shy about criticizing his colleague across the aisle.
And plenty of Twitter users launched their outrage in direct reply to McCarthy's Twitter account.
With Trump's impeachment trial in the Senate only days away, perhaps there will be a historical record of exactly who bears responsibility.
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