April 27, 2022

MAGA’s Knives Are Out for Kevin McCarthy

Trump says things are fine between the two men. But McCarthy should know better than anyone that politicians lie.

Anna Moneymaker/ZUMA

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It’s no secret that politicians have a shaky relationship with the truth. But few have been caught in such glaring, bald-faced lies as Kevin McCarthy. After the top Republican categorically denied a New York Times report last week that he had planned to demand Donald Trump’s resignation in the immediate aftermath of January 6, an audio recording revealed that he had done exactly that. 

Since then, McCarthy has been begging for Trump’s forgiveness and attempting to convince the GOP he’s still committed to the band. But McCarthy’s standing grew even more tenuous after the Times dropped yet another bombshell recording on Tuesday revealing McCarthy had been seriously concerned that some of the GOP’s far-right characters—namely Matt Gaetz and Mo Brooks—could incite further violence.

For now, it looks like most of the GOP is sticking by McCarthy. Still, he’d be a fool to mistake his closed-door, standing ovation for an indication that the knives aren’t out. “Kevin McCarthy is a puppet of the Dem Party,” read a chron on Tucker Carlson Tonight. “Is THIS the kind of leadership you want to lead the House of Representatives?” Gaetz, the subject of McCarthy’s fears, wrote in a fundraising email this afternoon. “Two-faced Swamp politicians, who smear Trump behind the scenes and defend someone who targets MAGA in unselect committees with Nancy Pelosi?”

As for Trump, the former president told the Wall Street Journal that things are copacetic between him and McCarthy. But how long will that last? Is it even true? McCarthy should know as well as anyone in the game: politicians lie.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

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And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

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