In the aftermath of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, then-House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy was not pleased with Donald Trump. The congressman even told his members — in comments that were recorded and later released — that he’d “had it with this guy,” referring to Trump. The GOP leader added, “What he did is unacceptable. Nobody can defend that, and nobody should defend it.”
That was in early January 2021. In late January 2021, just 17 days after the “had it with this guy” comments, McCarthy hopped on a plane, went to Mar-a-Lago, met with Trump, and kissed the proverbial ring of the disgraced former president. After the meeting, a photo of the two quickly circulated throughout the political world.
It was, by some measures, one of the more important moments in recent GOP history. Without saying a word, McCarthy signaled to the political world that Trump, despite his dangerous and scandalous effort to remain in office after losing, was not just a Republican in good standing — he also remained the party’s preeminent leader.
One simple photo helped breathe life into Trump’s political career at a time when his future was in doubt.
Asked about the trip, McCarthy told a group of college students this week that he was in south Florida anyway for an unrelated event at the time, and he thought “no one was going to know about” the Mar-a-Lago visit. As part of the same comments, the former House speaker pressed Trump on whether he leaked the photograph of the two of them.
“[H]e looks at me, and he goes, ‘Well, it’s good for both of us, you know,’” McCarthy explained.
Three years later, McCarthy’s successor as House speaker is making his own sojourn to the former president’s glorified country club. NBC News reported:
House Speaker Mike Johnson will travel to former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on Friday for remarks about “election integrity” with Trump, two sources directly familiar with the plans confirmed. ... CNN first reported plans for the remarks.
So let me see if I have this straight. On the one hand, there’s Trump — a prolific liar who’s spent the last several years peddling bonkers conspiracy theories about his election defeat. On the other hand, there’s Johnson — a far-right congressman who helped spearhead an ill-fated effort to convince the Supreme Court to keep Trump in power despite the voters’ verdict, and who voted with his party to reject certifying the results of a free and fair election.
Johnson also echoed some of the wilder conspiracy theories about the race, and more than three years later, the Louisiana Republican is still reluctant to acknowledge the legitimacy of the 2020 elections
These two are going to hold a joint event focused on “election integrity,” with the expectation that people will take their rhetoric seriously.
As for why, exactly, this Mar-a-Lago event is happening, I’m reminded of the “it’s good for both of us” line Trump apparently delivered to McCarthy.
Johnson, for example, continues to fail as a legislator, and one of his most radical members recently launched an effort to oust him from the speaker’s office. The GOP leader’s calculus seems pretty straightforward: Facing an uncertain fate, Johnson is likely to benefit from being seen alongside his party’s presumptive nominee and most powerful voice.
Johnson, in other words, needs a hand, and he’s looking to Trump to provide him with one. Indeed, a Politico report noted that the Mar-a-Lago gathering was an idea pitched by the speaker’s office, not the former president’s team.
As for what’s in it for Trump, Politico’s report added that he gets “the country’s highest-ranking Republican to lend credence to his voting concerns.”
What could possibly go wrong?