Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., on Sunday said there’s “no way” former President Donald Trump would have resigned after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, and was “surprised” that House GOP leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., would have suggested it.
In an interview on NBC News’ “Meet The Press,” Blunt suggested the McCarthy comment, reported in a new book by New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns titled “This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America’s Future” due out in May, was merely thinking out loud.
“Frankly, when I first heard this, I thought, anybody close to President Trump as Kevin McCarthy was would know the last thing Donald Trump would do is resign or quit,” Blunt said.
“It was a pathway, ten days to the end of this term. There was no way that was going to happen and I was frankly … surprised that Kevin would even suggest it might be a realistic suggestion to make to President Trump.”
“I’ve never been in the leadership meeting where you felt like you couldn't think out loud and apparently, they have a leadership where you can't think out loud,” Blunt added.
McCarthy has denied he said that, didn’t vote in favor of impeaching or convicting Trump and visited the former president at his Mar-a-Lago resort at the end of January 2021, less than a month after the attack.
According to Blunt, he’d likely vote for Trump again should Republicans nominate him as their presidential choice in 2024.
“I can't imagine that I won’t,” he said. “Donald Trump got elected because he satisfied people's need to send a message about their frustration with government. If he's the nominee again, that will because people are still frustrated with government and there aren't other Republicans who meet that need. We'll see what happens between now and then.”
Blunt also weighed in on the war between Ukraine and Russia, saying the United States should “be thinking” about reopening its embassy in Ukraine.
“I think we ought to be thinking about reopening our embassy there, and if the Ukrainian people can stay, I think our diplomats are willing to be there,” he said.
He lamented that diplomats are “outside the country and trying to manage all of the efforts of American volunteers.”
“There are several hundred American volunteer groups trying to help people get food and shelter and clothing and those Americans are there, and I think the people who represent our country officially can be there now as well,” Blunt said.
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Fran Beyer ✉
Fran Beyer is a writer with Newsmax and covers national politics.
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