McCarthy fears the post-January 6 Republican legislature is putting "people in danger"

Kevin McCarthy, a Republican leader in the House, fears some far-right members of Congress will incite violence against other lawmakers after the January 6 attacks and cited some as a security risk in private conversations with party leaders.

According to an audio recording by The New York Times, McCarthy spoke to other members of Congress about his desire to rein in some of the hardliners deeply involved in Donald Trump's efforts to shuffle the 2020 election and undermine the peaceful transfer of power.

But McCarthy did not follow the more challenging steps some Republicans were pushing to take, choosing to seek political deals with the party's most extreme members to advance his career. McCarthy's comments are one of the Republican leader's most serious admissions that the party's regular lawmakers played a role in starting violence on January 6, 2021 - and posed a threat in the days following the Capitol attack. An audio recording of the comments was obtained in a report for the upcoming book, This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden and the Battle for the Future of America.

In a telephone conversation with other Republican leaders on January 10, McCarthy cited representatives from Florida's Matt Gates and Alabama's Mo Brooks. They threatened the safety of other lawmakers and the Capitol compound. But he and his allies discussed several other representatives who made comments they deemed offensive or harmful, including Lauren Boubert of Colorado and Barry Moore of Alabama.

This country is "too crazy," McCarthy said, for its members to speak and tweet recklessly at a crucial time. Brooks and Goetz were the main actors in the eyes of party leaders. Brooks spoke the inflammatory language at the January 6 rally on the National Mall that preceded the Capitol riots. After January 6, Gaetz on TV attacked several Republicans critical of Trump, including Wyoming's Liz Cheney, a leadership team member.

Gaetz's comments worry McCarthy and his colleagues in the leadership - especially the reference to Cheney, who has already been publicly threatened and criticized by Trump's faction in the party for his criticism of the defeated president.