not kevin mccarthy. if he wants to ever be speaker of the house, he must, like liz cheney said, he must go by the constitution and rule of law. he is a republican taking it to an autocracy. they don't want democracy. in every move they make, they're looking towards a dictatorship. you're supposed to love the constitution, not the man that's in the white house. regardless of whose. -- of who he is. we are the united states of america. not the republican, not the democrat, but the united states of america. people have to wake up or we're going to end up like they are in russia or north korea. you know, loving the man, not the rule of law. host: going to go to the republican line. earl's next in amory, wisconsin. caller: yes, i have questions on it i think jim jordan can answer. there are there were four buses that pulled up in front of the capitol ahead of the group that came from trump's rally. they got in there somehow and we don't see any videos on it. we want the videos shown to us public so we can und

>> this is a different kevin mccarthy.mp bears responsibility for the insurrection on january 6. it's tough to square for the republican party. they have been talking about repressive regimes while at the same time kissing the ring of a dictator. he had visions of being a hitler like tyrant. at least that's the estimation of general milley. i don't know how you could see that last night and hop in a car today and head up there. the republican leaders may be thinking they could control donald trump. we have been talking about this four or five years. >> do you think mccarthyg rchin donald trump? >> it sounds like it, that he is the organ grinder. it was like he was a dictator in it exile and now he is a dictator making a comeback and being enabled by kevin mccarthy. this is shameful to watch. >> we are getting new details about the final days and concern that top u.s. military commanders including general milley, they were worried that trump would try to stage a coup. if you believe what is going on in these new books comin

house minority leader kevin mccarthy called on him at his new jersey golf club, this kevin mccarthy. >> he should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding. >> that was a week after the insurrection. days later, of course, he walked it back and flying down to mar-a-lago to show his loyalty not to the truth, but instead to the man who incited a mob that sent him fleeing for his leitch and begging that same man that day to call off the rioters. quoting from a newly released excerpt from the books, quote, kevin mccarthy, who had been trying to reach trump at the white house, finally succeeded and asked him to publicly and forcefully call off the rioters. trump falsely claimed the rioters were members of antifa. other advisers who were away from the white house tried to call trump, but he didn't answer. they figured he knew what they were going to say and i didn't want to hear it. plus he was busy watching tv. he was watching the fire that he started burn. that's who kevin mccarthy made a pilgrimage to again today. he can't quit him because he's scared of him, sca

have that sound from kevin mccarthy reacting.e other side. >> i was shocked that she would accept something from speaker pelosi. it would seem to me since i didn't hear from her maybe she's closer to her than us. i don't know. >> garrett, he specifically to your follow-up question saying they're not going to take away her committee assignments and then he said specifically, i don't know in history when someone would go get their committee assignments from the speaker and expect them to have them from the conference, meaning the republicans, as well. is that an implied threat to take retaliatory action against liz chainy? . >> it certainly seems that way it had the feeling of a sort of mob-style -- and they're nice and clear that they'll have to go back and strategize here about how they want to handle republicans do these two issues. they're looking across the aisle and they see committees stacked with committee chairmen and former impeachment managers and one of the most recognizable house republicans in the country picked by th

we didn't hear kevin mccarthy do it. and so, we have a republican party that is, absolutely, in lockstep with trumpism. and what general milley was talking about, which is a terrible, awful, terrifying moment in american history. >> jim, what's also so stunning about this is kevin mccarthy's got to know that, no matter how much he debases himself. no matter how much he take -- bends a knee to and -- and, you know, kisses the ring of the former president. even if he does this, every single day, through the next election, he could still not become speaker of the house. the -- the former president could just decide, you know, on any, given day, no matter what kevin mccarthy has done, it's not enough. and i'm going to -- i'm going to cut him off at the knees. >> that's right, anderson. and -- and kevin mccarthy and mitch mcconnell had a choice when they made up their mind -- minds about trump after the insurrection that he, basically, was the -- the cause of it. they could have let him remain in exile, and not do what they'r

i don't think it's a coincidence that, on the day that kevin mccarthy or the night that kevin mccarthyinner with angela merkel, who trump dislikes, and hillary clinton who trump loathes. and joe biden, who is the president of the united states, who beat trump. kevin mccarthy had to go kiss the ring and soothe, you know, trump's nerves. and what he has -- what he is trying to portray as, like, the white house in exile in bedminster. we saw him use a podium, have all these flags. try to make it look very white housish. so i think it has a lot to do with that. he -- you know, i think trump was gonna -- was gonna throw a jealousy tantrum like a spoiled child. >> yeah. bottom line this for me, charlie. you know, you hear what anna says on the very same day as this and they are meeting and they are not talking about the insurrection. what they are talk -- they're strategizing. >> of course. look. there -- there's no question that kevin mccarthy feels he needs to keep donald trump close to him. he needs him more as an ally, than an enemy, in order to -- to win. kevin mccarthy wants to be spea

she was not allowed to do that by kevin mccarthy and she took a better road. not like them. she told you she doesn't like them, but they represent their districts, they're members of good standing inside the -- >> i have a question for you, honestly. so many more republicans, though, besides those two don't you think is a little bit poking the bear, no? >> my second was going to be think about the conference politics of this. kevin mccarthy's dream is be speaker of the house. i think republicans are going to win the house. that's high view. when he gets to that point of trying to be the speaker he's going to have all corners of that conference aligned. and the idea you aren't going to put somebody from the jordan wing of the conference on a high profile deal like this, of course he was going to do of course he's going to do it. wouldn't it have been better to let them make fools of themselves in the eyes of the american people. if that's how you feel their performance would be. to me what pelosi did is give ammunition to the republican argument that this was a

i don't think it's a coincidence that on the day that kevin mccarthy, on the night that kevin mccarthy merkel who trump dislikes, and hillary clinton, who trump loathes, and kevin mccarthy had to go kiss the ring and soothe trump's nerves, and what he is trying to portray as the white house in exile in bedminster. so i think it has to do a lot to do with that. i think trump was going to throw a jealousy tantrum like a spoiled child. >> bottom line is, you heard -- the very same day, they're meeting and they're strategizing. >> of course. look, there's no question that kevin mccarthy feels he needs to keep donald trump close to him. he needs him more as an ally than an enemy. he knows if trump turns on him, a significant number of house republicans does too, and you remember when john boehner stepped down, he was taken down, by many of the hard right of the gop conference. so kevin mccarthy is doing everything he can to maintain that support from that wing of the party. i think that's what this is about. >> thank you so much, charlie and anna. i appreciate it. >>> he says there is nothi

they say in some ways pelosi really played into the hand of kevin mccarthy by the fact she decided they weren't going to be on this committee now it allows ken mccarthy to say this is partisanship. not saying that's true but the talking point will come forward with republicans in the coming days. >> it's interesting because, as i mentioned, what's really fascinating about this is that kevin mccarthy ran into a brick wall today, but it's a brick wall he built. he and mitch mcconnell decided to tank a truly bipartisan commission. the only reason nancy pelosi had the power she used today is kevin mccarthy gave it to her. what about the whole issue around banks and his trip to the border and the talk that he was appearing in photographs for people who participated in the insurrection? do you think that weighed in in terms of the outrage of other members that pushed pelosi to this? >> of course. i think when you look at both mr. banks and jim jordan and the statements they've made and the vote that they took following january 6th, they clearly didn't feel they could be two members who wanted

kevin mccarthy was campaigning to be speaker, which was unsuccessful.licans ended up getting paul ryan as speaker. he was extolling how much that benghazi committee ended up doing to hillary clinton. as democrats were able to say, aha, this is all about politics, at the end of the day, what the committee ended up finding with subpoena power ended up proving damaging to democrats in 2016 and may have cost them that election. >> you're right, mark, right? politics will always be involved in something like this on capitol hill. there's a real reason to this committee and investigation. that is the unanswered questions that remain about january 6th. peel way the layers of he says this, she said this, what actually happened. right? when you look at the actions and what triggered the riot on january 6th, it related to the words of the defacto leader and then very official leader of one of the parties involved, right? not both. it was very specifically former president donald trump. that as you know deniable, right? there's no bipartisanship on that front. it'

is kevin mccarthy a material witness? >> we know kevin mccarthy had a phone call that day with trump. >> it's not just january 6th. it's about the planning to get there. >> and something else. one of the things, getting to the point where we have the four police officers, four from the d.c. police four and four from the capitol police are talking openly, it's been a process. initially nobody was allowed to talk publicly about this. then some of the metropolitan police officers, dan hodges, and michael finone were allowed to give little statements. it's been a process. you might remember early on, i think it was national public radio, had a conversation with a black capitol police officer, and they -- i forget. i think they had to take the transcript of the conversation and have an actor read it, because they didn't want his voice out there. now we have officers giving accounts on stage before an international forum. i want to play the clip from harry dunn, the capitol police officer talking about the horrific racism that

i have to say watching nancy pelosi taking on kevin mccarthy, that's like this bad ass ninja against a sock puppet. it's not a fair fight. she is just so much smarter than mccarthy. i have very low opinion of his intellect. but if you only were a partisan strategist, you would want jim jordan on there. you're going into the midterm where the deck is stacked against the democrats. but people like jim jordan really ignore those suburban swing voters who are republicans but they're sick of trump. so, strictly partisan move you would want jordan on there. pelosi's an institutionalist. jordan has a conflict of interest. he was one of the ultra right-wing republicans who went and met with trump to plan for the vote on certifying the electoral college. so that's a conflict of interest right there. and of course banks, as soon as he was appointed, had this hysterical statement including things like make no mistake, nancy pelosi created this committee to justify the left os authoritarian agenda. the capitol was breached for the first time since 1814 in the war of 1812 with the brits. that's no

kevin mccarthy, yes, i am a paid adviser to kevin, but i don't talk to him about this stuff.his is a partisan committee, and kevin did propose to do a bipartisan committee that would look at political violence. for instance, his colleague, steve scalise was shot on a baseball field. why only focus on january 6? the reason is simple -- democrats know they're in a terrible position in 2022 to keep the house. they want to drum this up for political purposes and they keep talking about it over and over again. now they have created committee where nancy pelosi could sign off even -- >> so in you're in the minority and you don't get every single thing you want, that last thing he wanted wasn't each in this february 22 2 letter, he added later. then you don't look at an attack on the capitol, even when you are inside of it. is that right? >> this was a partisan process from the very beginning the first proposal nancy pelosi made was, it wouldn't be equal, that they would be in charge of the process. here we are now, she's basically got swhan she originally proposed, which is they're

kevin mccarthy is technically my republican leader. childish names like donald trump used to do, i guess, is just kind of par for the course. >> that's what stupid people do, it actually is. if you look at the facts, which, of course, kevin mccarthy doesn't ever do, liz cheney has like a 95% acu rating. 95% conservative rating over the course of her career, which is actually my conservative rating, but what i found out a long time ago and liz certainly has known for some time now, obviously, by seeing what's going on, this republican party, donald trump's republican party doesn't care about ideas, doesn't care about idealogy, doesn't care about conservatism. it is disconnected from conservatism, it is all tribal. it's all about voodoo and medicine, it's all about violence on january 6, it's all about covering up actually what donald trump is doing. and so kevin mccarthy resorts to childish name calling for, again, i don't know what adam's lifetime conservative rating is, but liz is 95%. 95%, one of the higher -- one of the more conserv

liberty. ♪ >>> we're getting reaction from republican leader kevin mccarthy, releasing a statement aboutcision to reject representatives jim jordan and jim banks, two of the republicans that mccarthy recommended for this select committee. in his statement, he calls this, quote, an egregious abuse of power, says it will irreparably damage this institution, saying that speaker pelosi is, in his words, denying the voices of these members. and goes on to say that unless speaker pelosi reverses course and seats all five republican nominees, the men you see on your screen there, republicans will not be party to their sham process, in mccarthy's words, and says they will instead pursue our own investigation of the facts. things heating up on capitol hill this afternoon, this at a critical time as the administration is facing, of course, an uphill battle when it comes to not only what's happening on capitol hill but what is happening across the country, the battle with covid, vaccinating americans hitting a wall at this point. we've stalled with less than half the country fully vaccinated. presi

for kevin mccarthy, that's donald trump. today he's going to meet with trump at his golf club in new jersey. his office claims the two discussed upcoming special elections, the mid-terms and fundraising number. a source claims there was no discussion apparently about the elephant in the room which is mccarthy's current high stakes decision to name five republicans to the committee will investigate the january 6th investigation. he has to make that decision in the coming days. to state the obvious, the central of that investigation is donald j. trump. the meeting between mccarthy and trump as we are hearing some of the most disturbing revelations about the actions of his final days in office. specifically that the joint chiefs of staff, mark milley, feared trump would attempt a coup after the election. viewing him as the classic authoritarian leader with nothing to lose. that bombshell coming from "washington post" reporters in their upcoming book. but none of that seems to matter to kevin mccarthy. he's embracing the man at

please don't do that, kevin mccarthy. >> amanda, what do you think?i just -- you know, this whole idea that donald trump is going to magically go away and we can ring our hands that it shouldn't be this way, but if anybody stands up to it, they're somehow the problem. right? like -- unwavering loyalty to donald trump is absolutely becoming the litmus test for membership in the republican party and it's because of people like kevin mccarthy who run around and say, well, liz cheney and adam kinzinger, you aaccept this assignment from nancy pelosi, i don't know if i can call you republican anymore. where is mitch mcconnell? he's hiding out. so unless you have people like liz cheney and adam kinzinger making the case for how this transcends politics and why this is a much bigger issue than donald trump and the republican party, we're screwed. keep crying about the future of the republican party because the road where we're going down is where you only have candidates like paul goe sar, marjorie taylor greene, herschel walker. that's what you're going to g

this as the feud between house speaker nancy pelosi and minority leader kevin mccarthy intensifies followingaker's rejection of two of mccarthy's committee picks and replacing one with republican adam kinzinger. >> melanie joins us from capitol hill. so, this is now becoming a childish name-calling event. kevin mccarthy is now calling cheney and kinzinger "pelosi republicans. >> reporter: yeah the name-calling is picking up here, things are starting to intensify, and republicans are ramping up their attacks not only on speaker nancy pelosi but also on adam kinzinger and liz cheney, the sole republicans to serve on that panel. kevin mccarthy has labeled them as, quote, pelosi republicans, and we're also hearing that members on the far right want to punish them and get them kicked off their committee assignments. so, look, all of this is coming on the eve of the first hearing for the select committee, but investigators are determined to not let this get in the way of their work. take a listen to what adam kinzinger said when he was asked earlier today. no sound. all right, kinzinger earlier to

look, kevin mccarthy is the master of nothing. this is what it comes down to. kevin mccarthy decided, after january 6th, that it was more important to him to manage his position within the party and to manage his decision with donald, trump and manage his position with voters, that it actually be a minority leader and do with the purpose of government is. get legislation passed that benefits his constituents. work with the democrats, maybe try to cut a deal so that the democrats don't do liberal things that they want to do on their own devices. that's how goverment works. up until two minutes ago. this is our entire history, this is the first time, these last few years, where one party has decided they are gonna be and -- in the commentators on partisan news outlets rather than -- argue for and legislate with and make commitments to that would best benefit the people. none of them voted for the covid package, i was very skeptical of the people in your previous statement, that's not what their incentives are right now. there incited incentives are to be popular

>> we'll get back to kevin mccarthy when he starts to take questions. thanks, andrea. >> the white house is responding on the debate within the administration about whether to update masking guidance for vaccinated americans saying the cdc will make any decisions on potential new masking even as covid spikes across the country. joining me is dr. gupta pulmonologist at the university of washington and tara purcel, and the bloomberg school of public health and an olympic silver medalist at the 2004 games in athens. first to you, dr. gupta, we are seeing so many more cases now. do you have greater concerns about masking and being more proactive against the spread? >> good afternoon, andrea. good to be here. you know, given the fact that the vaccines, if you're fully vaccinated especially with two doses of the vaccine are so very protective against the delta variant and the emerging threats, i'm not. we need to remain calm and not respond day over day to the rise in cases which is as we see, the rise in cases has decoupled from a rise in hospitalizations an

for that i want to apologize. >> that came after house republican leader kevin mccarthy had condemnednts then. abby, nothing from gop leadership on the latest comments about brown shirts. will mccarthy take real action here or does greene ultimately know that she can pretty much say whatever she wants at this point, abby? >> yeah, i do think that it's been clear for a long time that marjorie taylor greene is setting the agenda in a lot of ways when it comes to minority leader kevin mccarthy. he has been reluctant to push back on her, reluctant to do it privately and publicly. the reason that she gave that apology, which i think now we can call what it is, a stunt, it was because mccarthy was attempting at that time to try to pressure democrats to pull the committee assignments of congresswoman ilhan omar and also trying to create the sort of scenario in which greene apologized for her controversial comments while congresswoman omar did not. so i think the whole purpose of this was just a little bit of a political stunt. marjorie taylor greene obviously, based on her comments then, kno

everything about kevin mccarthy has to be seen through that lens. he believes everything he sees the way he becomes speaker is remaining loyal and solicitous of a former president who is clearly still perpetuating a lie on the american people. >> it told us everything. on the very day all this reporting about general milley being concerned that trump was going to somehow engineer a coup after election day, on that very day all that comes out, mccarthy goes to bed minister to meet with trump, why? because he doesn't care. because he cares about one thing and one thing only. and melanie, you have some new reporting about just how central donald trump is to kevin mccarthy and his strategy of taking back the house. >> yeah, you're absolutely right. this is a calculation that kevin mccarthy made really in the weeks after january 6th is when he made his first trip to mar-a-lago. it's not entirely surprising to see him go to bed minister now. it's not just kevin mccarthy, we have seen elise steph fannic, steve scalise trying to seek his support, stay in hi

>> kevin mccarthy or other people have said publicly, there's been ample reporting that mccarthy hadotesters or try to pull back the protesters. i think that they would all -- i think it's been widely reported in phil rucker and carol leonnig's book and a host of other books about this administration that trump was very angry that day. the questions that people are going to want to know is did trump say no to the national guard. and by the way, mark meadows was probably in the room with him for most of this. i don't know if jared kushner and ivanka trump -- i mean there's ample reporting out there to cling onto. on the liz cheney topic, nicolle, i've been covering her since when she was in leadership and before. liz cheney has, i think it's fair to say, put her career in jeopardy. there's no question about that, on this quest to get the truth about january 6th. and on her just disdain for donald trump and kevin mccarthy in a state that donald trump won by 50 something percentage points. so, you know, it's -- she is definitely taking a tack that the truth is more important than party,

look, kevin mccarthy is the master of nothing.at it was more important to him to manage his position within the party and to manage his position with donald trump and manage his position with the voters than to be an actual minority leader and try to, you know, do what the purpose of government is, get legislation passed that benefits his constituents. work with the democrats. maybe try to cut deals so that the democrats don't do as liberal things as they might want to do on their own devices. that's how government worked up until two minutes ago. this is how how the entire history of our government has worked. the last few years, one party has decided they're going to be beholden to their craziest supporters rather than beholden to the entire country and try to argue for things that would benefit them. none of them voted for the covid package. i was spectacle of the people in your last segment who think they're going to do a bipartisan infrastructure bill. that's not what their incentives are right now, it's to be popular on fox,

kevin mccarthy backed himself into a corner.o there was absolutely nothing left for him to do today other than to pull the plug. usually in circumstances like this, and chalian and nobles can correct me if i'm wrong. but in circumstances like this you'll have a committee come out and issue a report, and the republicans and the minority leader would issue their own report. that now won't happen. you will have this what appears to be a bipartisan committee going forward doing the work, issuing the report. and i'm assuming that jim jordan and others are going to have to go out and do their own thing, create their own committee and play in their own sand box. but, again, you have to give praise to the skill of nancy pelosi as she navigates a very fragile majority in the united states congress. >> and, natasha, what do you make of this republican effort to argue the house speaker is to blame for the security and intelligence failures of january 6th? that was a clear talking point earlier today that was said over and over again at tha

it may very well be that kevin mccarthy is called to testify under oath. want to tell us what took place on that phone call? >> no, i don't have to because kevin will speak and i'm sure kevin will be very good from that standpoint. >> kevin will be very good from that standpoint. sounds like he's talking about frankie, "godfather ii" knows kevin mccarthy would never say anything to ever hurt him? >> john, we kind of know what was said. i believe donald trump made some comment to kevin mccarthy to the effect that these protesters are more concerned about the election than you are. and kevin mccarthy, apparently, shared that conversation with several members of the house republican conference including jayny herrera beutler who had spoken about it quite publicly. so i think kevin mccarthy, if he is asked to testify, will have to state the truth. if that comes out, that's not good for anybody. it's not good for donald trump. and it's clear that the former president was egging on inciting the rioters. that's what we have going on here. if you're kevin mccarthy

the remaining members will be picked in consultation with the house republican leader kevin mccarthy. between the lines in a closed-door meeting with freshman republicans on wednesday, mccarthy warning they would be stripped from their committee assignments if they accepted a position on that select committee with pelosi. that was from axios.com. we heard from leader mccarthy and his comments. we will go to earl in alabama, independent line. caller: good morning, thanks for having me. mccarthy is saying it is unprecedented that liz cheney accepted the position on the committee, i don't know that the republicans think that people can't think holistically. this was also an unprecedented task on the capital to try to overturn an election. they need to be very careful about what they have to say. they are definitely misleading to those who are uninformed. to those who are informed, miss cheney is doing a great job and serves as an example for all politicians. host: this is from jason, think republican should serve on the committee? they tend to blame other groups, let them prove it. marth

kevin mccarthy has gone full circle on this thing.nd the day of, and the day after january six, he seemed to be in the right places about this. understanding the danger that he and his republican colleagues, and staff all faced on that day. now he is simply an obstructionist. at some point, this is gonna come back to bite him. >> i think he is a lot worse. i think he is an anti-democratic autocrat, who loses or democracy when he, winds and not a democracy when he loses. he's not for democracy. kevin mccarthy is an easy guy to dismiss, he sort of a buffoon. he is sort of a perennial chairman, some frat. that doesn't mean he's not dangerous. history is filled with people who seem to be harmless, and played harmful and -- we should take kevin mccarthy seriously, and understand he does not have the same vision of a democratic free democracy that most of us have. >> cornell, and some point though, nancy pelosi has got this committee underway. she had the first move, she brought liz cheney in, and kevin mccarthy has a choice. he feels the f

these three people do not offend kevin mccarthy based on his public statements or lack there of. far more than liz cheney does. i mean, that's who kevin mccarthy is. >> that is not test. >> not about the conservative principles, but if you are willing to support trump lies. >> along the lines, george p. bush, the current commissioner of texas running for attorney general of texas actively, obsessively sought the approval of donald trump despite the fact that the former president belittled the bush family in the 2015 primaries. george p. putting out the campaign koozie. a graphic depiction of the meeting. he is the one member of the bush family that i like or agrees with me. doing everything to get that endor endorsement. what does trump do? endorse ken paxon. >> he is under investigation himself who put forward the deranged lawsuit that sought to take away the electoral votes that they got and threw out the window. he has proved this by doing this major thing to support donald trump's election lie. secondly, i have a difficult time getting past the george p. kowtowing to begin wit

i think that they're, frankly, insulting and that kevin mccarthy -- kevin mccarthy's picks are insulting not just on a party basis but to this country. >> uh-huh. uh-huh. i don't disagree with you on that. so, i want -- let's turn, now, to infrastructure. okay. the senate minority leader, chuck schumer -- majority leader, excuse me -- chuck schumer filing tonight for the bipartisan infrastructure bill. this means that the key-test vote is going to be on wednesday but the senate gop leadership, again, threatening to block that vote, unless negotiators strike a deal on it. sep separately, you threatened to tank the bipartisan infrastructure deal if the bigger $3.5 trillion spending proposal isn't passed at the same time. why take infrastructure if it's not included? >> well, one of the things that i was -- that i think is important is that last time we checked, the people of this country elected a democratic-majority house. they elected a democratic senate. and they elected a democratic presidency. and what that means, with those votes, is that they did not elect republicans to define and

i will say i think officer mike finone got it right when he met with kevin mccarthy. he bravely defended the capitol on the 6th. he was tased. he had a heart attack. he suffered traumatic brain injury. he said to mr. mccarthy, please just appoint serious individuals so we can have a serious inquiry. as we wait to see who he puts on that committee, i hope he takes it as serious as it was. >> and the speaker can veto, correct, an appointment? >> yes, thank god. nobody wants marjorie taylor greene on that committee. >> i know you said that chairman thompson can decide who he wants to call. do you think it's possible kevin mccarthy will be called to testify? you said no one's off the table. what about donald trump? i mean, would you even expect donald trump to testify or would he find an excuse to not testify? >> well, we offered donald trump the opportunity to testify during the senate impeachment trial, and we used the fact that he refused to come in against him as an adverse inference, meaning that the fact that he was asked to testify and he turned us down showed that

we just saw pictures of kevin mccarthy in the rose garden. first of all, this is notable. i don't recall democrats ever being asked to sign in at ceremonies during the trump years, but leader mccarthy was there and was at the ceremony honoring angela merkel. this is clearly an effort by this president to talk about being bipartisan, and this bipartisan moment in the rose garden is what mccarthy had to say when asked whether he was going to punish kenzinger and cheney for participating in the now democrat-led january 6th committee. >> some republicans have been saying that the gop should play ball on this committee. >> really? who was that? adam and liz? >> well -- >> aren't they kind of like pelosi republicans? >> and then he was asked whether he would punish them and he said, we'll see. he called them pelosi republicans. first of all, your reaction to that? >> that's absurd. if anybody looks at the voting records of mr. kenzinger and mrs. cheney, they will know that they haven't voted with speaker pelosi except on the most bipartisan of bills. they are real republicans. li

nancy pelosi rejected kevin mccarthy's pick.ublicans on the committee, the two republicans said yes and showed up in earnest. i wonder if we are getting a bit of a roadmap for breaking some of what is broken in our politics in our country? >> well, i mean i hope this moment is a moment. all of those people that were like, let's get back to normal, like whether it is the pre-pandemic or pre-donald trump, let's get back to normal. i don't want to get back to normal. back to normal was still a country that still needed a whole bunch of work, and this moment in time, extending it over five years but especially on january 6th, is a very purposeful moment for us all because it shows us who we are as a country. we're not as great as we thought we were. we don't have leaders of integrity like we thought we did. i have come on transition on the republican. as you know, i left the republican party 14 years ago and i always thought, okay, it is a party that may not have integrity, i disagree with them on a number of issues, but i have now

you've been listening to house minority leader kevin mccarthy and the five republicans that he had picked for the january 6th select committee. mccarthy has now pulled all five of those members from that committee. >> it happened after house speaker nancy pelosi's decision to reject two of mccarthy's picks, republican congress ann jim jordan and jim banks. he says that republicans will now do their own investigation into the attacks. as we heard the focus there for him is why weren't the officers prepared there at the capitol? but of course there's so many more questions than that. this is the speaker's statement. with respect for the integrity of the investigation with an insistence on the truth and with concern about statements made and actions taken by these members, i must reject the recommendations of representatives banks and jordan to the select committee. >> cnn chief congressional correspondent manu raju is on capitol hill. manu, that was fascinating to listen to how they are now spinning why they can't be on this committee. what did you hear? >> yeah. clearly the republicans had

i wonder your view of how kevin mccarthy is dealing with this. tly what he wants here which is an opportunity to wash his hands of this entirely? there's nothing as you well know that he likes to do less than talk about what happened january 6th and the investigations into it. now he can say this is speaker pelosi's event, i am not participating in it. is that sort of how they're viewing this? >> reporter: yeah, i think so. and i think it goes both ways. we have to see how this plays out. we talk about this all the time, everything is infused with politics, especially as we get closer to election year. we talked about the fact we both have sourcing that there were members, republicans that didn't want to serve on this committee because they're worried about the midterm politics regarding this, so, you know, mccarthy did have a choice to participate in the committee, help to steer the direction and have a seat at the table and be able to massage the messaging around it or completely now he is not going to be part of it at this point anyway and thro

the question now is what will kevin mccarthy do? will he name members, what kind of members will he name and will they be some who voted to over turn the january 6 electoral results, all questions for republican leader as this investigation begins to take shape. >> kevin mccarthy has five to select. we see pelosi has made the selection of her eight and we'll see what mccarthy does next. manu raju, thank you so much. >>> and now to the direction from the u.s. supreme court. coming on the final day of its term. the justices just ruled 6-3 to uphold two voting rules in arizona. arguing that they do not violate the federal voting rights act. cnn's jessica schneider live from washington with the breaking details. >> and the takeaway is that this will make it much harder for people to challenge voting laws that are being furiously enacted all over the country by republican-led states and that is because the 6-3 decision written by samuel alito coming down along doilg lines. but this decision also now constricted how section two of the vot

he likes kevin mccarthy.kevin mccarthy is kiss the ring. i want to go to this thought that the book opens up, just to go big picture after what you laid out there, carol. the year 2020 test of the republic's institutions are still standing by the time america left office, the democracy stood the unrelenting assault of the president. who do you credit the most with keeping democracy afloat? >> it's two things at once, pam. it's fact that a ton of people who supported donald trump, worked for him ultimately beloved his impulses were soup dangerous and tried to be a bulwark against what he was trying to do. the other people is he wasn't that organized, if they were a democracy splinter they would have been so much better but they weren't. >> thank you so much. >>> who needs the olympic torch when you have a dumpster fire. ♪ rock the boat ♪ see disney's jungle cruise. it's time to rock the boat, america. (gong rings) - this is joe. (combative yelling) he used to have bad breath. now, he uses a capful of therabrea

and i think kevin mccarthy fell into a trap. he knew what he was doing by putting in jim jordan, jim banks says has been so many was bin extremely critical of the entire commission. but jim join us. some of the material witness because he was he was known to be working with. then president trump. i'm trying to deal with deal with the electoral college issue. i think kevin mccarthy thought he was beating that rapport the speaker. the fact is that. the hearings are really going to tell the tale. and if the democrats and liz cheney hold very, very, you know, non. i would say that they they don't train make it into something that slipped the evidence speak for itself. it could be very powerful. so i think that that mccarthy thought he was putting a trap for the speaker that make it seem like here she is just running a partisan show. but with liz cheney there and with the kind of people, including chairman bennie thompson. d. we're going to add this commission. it could. it could rebound extremely badly kevin mccarthy and the dependi

it's been reported that house minority leader kevin mccarthy and other republican lawmakers spoke withhe former president as this insurrection was unfolding. would you like to see testimony from mccarthy or trump himself? >> well, there is a critical moment when kevin mccarthy spoke to president trump and it's been reported secondhand that the president was essentially saying that, well, i guess kevin mccarthy wasn't as upset about the election as these people were, essentially implying that kevin's position wasn't the righteous one. unfortunately, for mr. mccarthy, that may have been a very brief moment of truth for him. but that wasn't a critical moment. i think there are a number of moments during the insurrection where there was communication between members of congress, perhaps president trump, maybe others at the white house, maybe the national guard leadership. that is really important information that will help us fully understand the events that allowed this attack to be as bad as it was. this is the reason that we want serious people who are willing to ask honest questions an

the question is, what does kevin mccarthy have to say about the move? >>> and team usa continues its quest for medals. katie ledecky comes up for the first event, but the question is can she still bring home the gold? it is "way too early" for this. >>> what's up, everybody? we will start with the news. coronavirus continues to rise and the nation's top infectious diseases expert dr. anthony fauci says the u.s. is headed in the wrong direction. nbc news correspondent meagan fitzgerald has the latest. >> reporter: the worst-case scenario among the unvaccinated. >> it feels like we're going back in the bowel again, and it's definitely another wave. >> reporter: the highly contagious delta variant fueling a new surge in cases across the country. the country's top doctor. >> we could have a considerable problem with the surge of infections. >> reporter: the variant sweeping through the south accounting for 40% of the new cases in the country. but in miami, thousands packing a stadium for a live concert as the cdc now says they could recommend masks for the

kevin mccarthy's visit comes with more trump lies. undermine the investigation about the insurrection. >>> new help for millions of american families. the white house says the new tax

and so, you know, kevin mccarthy faced a choice. do we participate in the panel and try to quash down the truth, if you will? or does he set up a scenario which he executed properly for kevin mccarthy's world? conflicting one over on nancy pelosi. nancy pelosi made the right decision, she did the right thing, she's on the right side of the truth and the politics. but what kevin mccarthy did is he put in front of the speaker a good choice and a, say, rodney davis, someone's universally liked on both sides of the aisle, and a jim jordan who was destined to disrupt the committee. so what kevin mccarthy wanted to do along was take his ball and leave because he wants to be able to run from the truth of january 6th and tell the voters that this is just a nancy pelosi witch hunt. at the end of the day, though, rev, i would say this. i don't think it matters as much the members who are sitting on the backside as it does the witnesses on the front side. the truth will come out regardless of whether these are democrat or republican members. t

kevin. leader mccarthy -- leader kevin mccarthy said.am process. what's your response to this process that this type of process in a select committee has never happened before and he said an abuse of power. >> let's look back on what led up to this select committee being formed. for months we have negotiated with republicans on how to put together a 9/11-style commission that would be non-partisan, that would be pulled out of politics, that we would be allowed to have bipartisan bicameral appointees, that they would be shared and subpoena powers and quorum and even number of participants. kevin mccarthy and mitch mcconnell and republicans rejected that, so today for kevin mccarthy to say if he is not allowed to put every conspiracy theorist that he wants on this very serious select committee, that this is somehow a sham process, it is beyond hypocritical, and kevin mccarthy needs to remember who he's sent here by, the american people, and at this time with the fragility of our democracy exposed we need to make sure that we are doing ever

kevin mccarthy has not named his members. will he?i haven't made a decision yet even to appoint. i'm discussing it with my members. this is the least bipartisan committee you can find. think about the structure. it's not an equal number of republicans or democrats. she an pointed adam schiff and raskin. this is an impeachment committee. only democrats have subpoena power. the speaker has control over anyone who is appointed. >> the speaker doesn't have control over anyone who's appointed. thursday he drops the impeachment committee in. he's under a lot of pressure. donald trump does not want this committee to succeed. i take that as "my kevin" as donald trump is fond of calling him, is maybe looking for a way out if he does not appoint. >> there's clearly a strategy or a possibility that he would do that as he signalled on those fox news interviews. also, how i read those kevin mccarthy comments is him systemically building his case for his own purposes that this committee is not a legitimate one, is not going to be doing a serious in

kevin mccarthy is driven right now by one dynamic. take back the house of representatives in 2022 based on a wealth of about 100 years of evidence about mid-term elections in the first term of a president. we will have to see if that holds true. he believes that, you know, republicans are only five seats away from that. redistricting helps them, and they believe there are a lot of democrats in soft seats that they could knock off. so everything he is trying to do is based on that goal, straight ahead toward election day and to win back the house of representatives. everything he does is guided by that principle and by that goal. >> so, donna, i think jake kind of lays out the script for republicans very accurately. so that means are the democrats doing enough right now? they have said that nothing less than our democracy is at stake. what should be, you know, the goal here? what should we be seeing from them right now? should these committees be hearing -- you know, for example these committee hearings being broadcast in prime time? m

we begin with kevin mccarthy's republican boycott of the select committee investigating january 6th. it's clear his decision is already backfiring on his party. but no amount of bluster can cover up mccarthy's ineptitude nor his guilty conscience. as trump's most obedient servant, he's trying to whitewash january 6th and cover up trump's role in the violence because according to trump, the crowd he summoned to washington that day was, quote, loving. and yes, he really said that, loving. not only that, trump actually blamed the capitol police for, quote, letting them in. >> it was a loving crowd too by the way. there was a lot of love. i've heard that from everybody. many, many people have told me, that was a loving crowd. in all fairness, the capitol police were ushering people in. the capitol police were very friendly. they were hugging and kissing. you don't see that. >> but disturbing video evidence released by the government at the request of news outlets clearly shows otherwise. capitol police engaged in literal hand-to-hand combat with the insurrectionists who showed no regard

so kevin mccarthy is doing everything he can to try to stop it. to try to distract from what we will find. but it won't work. we have a bipartisan quorum to go forward and we will go forward. >> we were just having a debate with our team here about whether this plays into kevin mccarthy's hands in terms of 24 is exactly what hands in terms of this is exactly what he wanted and will use it against anything that comes out of this commission. >> if this was what mccarthy wanted, mccarthy wouldn't have put anybody forward to begin with. he doesn't want this to go forward. i think what they will find if they continue to refuse to participate is they'll regret that they did. because we will go forward. we won't have the distractions of, you know, jim jordan and jim banks on the select committee, we will go forward with sobriety and we will find out exactly what led to the events of the 6th, what took place on that date, why reinforcements were not called in. we will answer those questions and again, for kevin mccarthy it's all about the politics all the

that's house minority leader kevin mccarthy. a. dodgers were in town. but down pennsylvania avenue we are waiting to see who mccarthy will recommend to the select committee to investigate the attack on the u.s. capitol. let me bring in my panel to discuss all of this. great to see you both. so let's look at what could play out here, kirsten. as we know, republican congresswoman liz cheney is on the panel at the speaker's request. only one other republican adam kinzinger voted in favor of creating this committee. is there any other republican mccarthy could recommend that wouldn't be vetoed by pelosi? >> um, i mean, i guess, in theory, there are probably people that wouldn't be vetoed. the question is whether or not he even wants to put anybody on this committee. because it's pretty clear if we just follow the trajectory of this entire debate that republicans aren't really interested in -- they're not only interested, they're opposed to investigating this. at this point i think it's in mccarthy's interest to not give any legitimac

i think they are frankly insulting and kevin mccarthy and kevin mccarthy's picks are insulting not justbasis but to this country. >> i don't disagree with you on that. so let's turn now into infrastructure. the senate minority -- majority leader excuse me, chuck schumer filing for the bipartisan infrastructure bill. this means that the key test vote is going to be on wednesday but the senate gop leadership again threatening to block that vote unless negotiators strike a deal on it separately you threatened to tank the bipartisan infrastructure deal if the bigger $3.5 trillion spending proposal isn't passed at the same time. why tank infrastructure if it's not included? >> well, one of the things i was -- that i think is important is that last time we checked, the people of this country elected a democratic majority house. they elected a democratic senate and elected a democratic presidency and what that means with those votes they did not elect republicans to define and limit the aspirations of this presidency and did not elect republicans to define our infrastructure package and so if