Kevin McCarthy Slammed for Saying 'Everybody Across This Country' to Blame for Capitol Attack

Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has been criticized for saying in an interview airing Sunday that he feels that "everybody across this country has some responsibility" for the deadly Capitol riot on January 6.

In the Full Court Press interview, a transcript of which Newsweek has obtained, host Greta Van Susteren asked the California congressman who he felt was responsible for the riot, noting that while he'd pointed toward former President Donald Trump at first, he later appeared to backtrack. McCarthy said he didn't change that position. Later in his response, he said Trump should have responded sooner, and released a video in which he called for calm earlier.

"I thought the president had some responsibility when it came to the response. If you listen to what president said at the rally, he said, 'demonstrate peacefully.' And then I got a question later about whether did he incite them. I also think everybody across this country has some responsibility," he told Van Susteren

McCarthy then noted the division in the country and the protests that followed Trump's inauguration four years earlier. "What do we write on our social media? What do we say to one another? How do we disagree and still not be agreeable even when it comes to opinion?" he said.

McCarthy also raised questions about the response to the riot, saying that the FBI was aware that the invasion was planned. He asked who else knew and what was known, noting unanswered questions. "When we had a meeting the day before they said they were prepared for all of it. I think this is what we have to get to the bottom of, and when you start talking about who has responsibilities, I think there's going to be a lot more questions, a lot more answers we have to have in the coming future," he said in the interview.

In the past, McCarthy has made similar calls for less political division. On January 8, he released a statement denouncing the riots at the Capitol two days earlier, calling for "lower[ing] the temperature and unit[ing] the country to solve America's challenges," also arguing that impeaching Trump would further sow division. "We all owe some responsibility here too, what our rhetoric has been, the different language that people have used, what you said on social media. We have risen these temperatures so great. In the last inaugural, we started with, 'resist.' We have members of Congress saying we should get in other people's faces. We need to lower the temperature. We need to understand that we're all Americans, and we need to start respecting differences of opinion," he said in a video posted to his Facebook page on January 16.

Ahead of the Full Court Press interview airing, McCarthy defended himself on Twitter Saturday afternoon, writing, "From the minute the Capitol was attacked, I called for the rioters to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and have repeatedly said that it is incumbent upon every person in America to help lower the temperature of our political discourse."

A McCarthy spokesperson responded in an email to Newsweek Saturday that the lawmaker's portion of the interview was misinterpreted: "I understand that some might want to spin McCarthy's comments as spreading culpability of the actual rioters to everyone, but that's just plain wrong. He has maintained since the attacks that we all have a responsibility to lower the political temperature across the spectrum that has been building for years and unite as Americans—this isn't the first instance of political violence."

But a number of people have already responded negatively to McCarthy's "everybody across this country" answer, many sharing an early HuffPost article that reported on his response. Some saw it as an abdication of who was really responsible for the riot and put the blame squarely on the former president and certain Republicans. Others, including Oz actor Kirk Acevedo and Will & Grace star Debra Messing, directed blame at McCarthy. "You refused to assert Biden as the winner/President elect. You stayed quiet along calls for a coup," Messing wrote.

A few politicians also tweeted about McCarthy's response. Massachusetts Rep. Jim McGovern called on him to "own this," and quoted House GOP Conference Chair Liz Cheney: "The President summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack. Everything that followed was his doing." California congressman Ted Lieu also quoted Cheney and directed the blame at Trump for the riot.