McCarthy argued in a closed door meeting on Monday night that it was a bad idea for the Republicans to make gutting the independent congressional ethics office their first move since taking control of both houses of Congress and the White House following the November election.
\u201cI was one of the first to the (microphone) as to why I didn\u2019t think this was the best timing to do it,\u201d McCarthy, of Bakersfield, told reporters on Tuesday.
House Republicans ignored his counsel and voted 119-74 on Monday night to curtail the independent Office of Congressional Ethics. Only after President-elect Donald Trump and others criticized the move on Tuesday did Republicans hold an emergency caucus meeting and drop the plan.
McCarthy had been caught in a vise, struggling to defend the plan to reporters Tuesday morning on the one hand while emphasizing his personal opposition to the timing on the other. Some two hours later, House Republicans decided curbing the ethics office didn\u2019t have to be their first priority after all.
McCarthy\u2019s office would not immediately comment on his role in convincing his fellow Republicans to drop the idea, but at least one lawmaker characterized him as playing a major role in the emergency deliberations that led to Tuesday\u2019s decision not to curtail the ethics office.
The House Republican decision to reverse course on sweeping changes to the ethics office came after Trump weighed in with his own feelings.
\u201cWith all that Congress has to work on, do they really have to make the weakening of the Independent Ethics Watchdog, as unfair as it may be, their number one act and priority. Focus on tax reform, healthcare and so many other things of far greater importance!\u201d Trump tweeted.
Asked by reporters about the criticism from Trump, McCarthy said that he shared the president-elect\u2019s view.
\u201cI read the tweet and those are the same arguments I made last night,\u201d McCarthy said.
McCarthy said he\u2019d prefer for House Republicans not to change the ethics system on their own \u2013 suggesting some Democrats also had concerns with the ethics office.
\u201cAnytime you want to deal with some reforms it\u2019s probably best to do it in a bipartisan manner,\u201d McCarthy said.
McCarthy nevertheless attempted to defend the plan to reporters, arguing that criticism of it was overblown. He fumbled on details when pressed, though, saying at one point \u201cI\u2019ll have to go back and look.\u201d He said there were concerns about ongoing ethics probes becoming public.
\u201cSomeone may be accused of something, that doesn\u2019t mean they did it or not,\u201d McCarthy said.
The independent Office of Congressional Ethics was created in 2008 after scandals and complaints that the House Ethics Committee wasn\u2019t aggressive enough in policing members of Congress.
The change would have renamed it the Office of Congressional Complaint Review and put the office under oversight of the House Ethics Committee.
The planned change was heavily criticized by watchdog groups and Democrats in Congress, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
\u201cHouse Republicans showed their true colors last night, and reversing their plans to destroy the Office of Congressional Ethics will not obscure their clear contempt for ethics in the people\u2019s House,\u201d Pelosi said in a written statement Tuesday.
Rep. David Brat, R-Va., said House Republicans withdrew the planned ethics changes after media coverage helped fan intense criticism of the move.
\u201cWe were just getting calls,\u201d Brat said. \u201cPart of it is the headlines.\u201d<\/p>\n