House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., on Tuesday did not support President Donald Trump likening the Democratic impeachment probe to a "lynching" — telling reporters, "That's not the language I would use," and instead slamming the investigation for lacking due process.
"I don't agree with that language," he said at a news conference with other House Republican leaders. "It's pretty simple.
"It's very clear that what the Democrats are doing here does not have due process, is not fair in the process, is not something that this House has done ever in the past," McCarthy added.
In a tweet earlier Tuesday, President Trump said called the Democratic probe a "lynching," while calling on Republicans to come to his defense.
"So, someday, if a Democrat becomes president and the Republicans win the House, even by a tiny margin, they can impeach the president, without due process or fairness or any legal rights," Trump said in his post.
"All Republicans must remember what they are witnessing here — a lynching," he added. "But we will WIN!"
Trump has continuously blasted the impeachment inquiry as a "witch hunt," but he employed the word "lynching" for the first time Tuesday — using a term associated with mass public killings of African Americans that became more regular following the Civil War and Emancipation.
Between 1882 and 1968, 4,743 lynchings occurred in the United States, with 3,446 — or 72.7% — of them being of African Americans, according to the NAACP.