House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said in a private meeting last year that he thought Vladimir Putin was paying Trump.
A leading Republican believed President Trump was getting money from Russia with love.
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said in a private meeting on June 15,2016 that he thought Vladimir Putin was paying then-candidate Trump.
“There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump. Swear to God, ” the California Republican said at a meeting that included House Speaker Paul Ryan, according to the Washington Post.
Rohrabacher refers to Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, another Republican congressman who has been outspoken in his praise of Putin and Russia. He denies taking money from the Kremlin.
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A spokesman for Ryan, who reportedly told those gathered not to leak information about the meeting, originally said the comment “never happened.” McCarthy’s team called it “absurd and false.”
But the conversation was also confirmed by former presidential candidate Evan McMullin, and the spokesmen each changed their tune and called it an “attempt at humor” when the Post said it would cite a recording of the conversation.
“This was an attempt at humor gone wrong. No surprise @WashingtonPost tried to contort this into breaking news, ” McCarthy posted on Twitter Wednesday evening.
Despite assertions that it was not serious, McCarthy’s remark shows the political gymnastics some lawmakers have gone through after Trump’s nomination and victory in November.
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McCarthy was among those who said Attorney General Jeff Sessions should recuse himself from the larger investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the election after it was revealed he had undisclosed meetings with Kremlin ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
But Republicans on Capitol Hill have been reluctant to get behind calls for a special prosecutor, a move taken by the Justice Department Wednesday when it named former FBI head Robert Mueller to head the investigation.
That probe is into the general meddling, though is also expected to address ties between the Trump campaign and Russian government officials.
Recently fired FBI Director James Comey said his agency’s investigation into the matter stretched back to last July, with McCarthy’s comment predating it and a trip to Moscow by Trump adviser Carter Page.
However, Trump had previously drawn attention for his praise of Putin and his appointment of Paul Manafort, a longtime Republican operative who worked for a pro-Kremlin party in Ukraine, as campaign manager.
