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You are here: Home / Politics / domestic terrorists / Insurrection Open Thread: *What* Is Kevin McCarthy Hiding?

Insurrection Open Thread: *What* Is Kevin McCarthy Hiding?

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“Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are”…

… The Jan. 6 committee has asked 35 telecommunication companies, like AT&T and Google, to hang onto phone records and other information related to the Jan. 6 attacks. CNN reported some of those logs include Republican members of Congress, former president Donald Trump and his family.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who opposed creation of the Jan. 6 committee, warned those companies that they would be violating federal law if they handed over those phone records.

To which two experts who served as House lawyers say: What federal law?…

There isn’t a specific law stopping these companies from handing over information to Congress. In fact, it’s arguably the opposite. Law enforcement agencies subpoena private companies all the time to get information, Brand said.

Mike Stern, a former lawyer for the nonpartisan House counsel office, said there are probably laws that bar phone carriers from turning over records voluntarily.

But the committee isn’t asking the companies to do that. For now, they’re just asking the companies to preserve specific records in case they want them later. And if they do want those records, the Jan. 6 committee would almost certainly issue a subpoena for them.

And in the case of a subpoena, these telecommunication companies would almost certainly comply, regardless of whose records are being sought…

Or maybe he doesn’t trust Darth Cheney’s daughter not to use his ‘private’ communications against him?

Journos smell blood in the water…

Reader Interactions

45Comments

  2. 2.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    Speaking of clueless Kevin:

    The ethics watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) on Friday asked the Office of Congressional Ethics to investigate whether House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) violated House rules by “threatening” telecommunications companies who comply with a records request from a House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

    h/t https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewsolender/2021/09/03/ethics-watchdog-requests-probe-into-kevin-mccarthy-marjorie-taylor-greene-for-threatening-telecom-firms/?sh=5a5ae8fb4601

    See Also https://www.citizensforethics.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/2021-9-3-McCarthy-Greene.pdf

  3. 3.

    BeautifulPlumage

    OT: a happy silver lining in the storm clouds!

    Hurricane Ida obliterated the offices of conservative undercover operative James O’Keefe and his Project Veritas group. Even “Retracto,” the stuffed alpaca O’Keefe uses as his mascot, was destroyed.

    https://twitter.com/willsommer/status/1433784221643034642?s=20

    (of course a new post goes up when I just commented in the last one *sigh*)

    ETA the block quote format; I’m no Baud

  4. 4.

    piratedan

    I don’t really know why the House Minority leader felt compelled to call the president during the events of jan 6th, but I do think that it might just be a tad relevant.

    Just like mo brooks, mjt, biggs, gosar, tuberville…. lets just find out shall we?

  5. 5.

    Richard

    I don’t think they should be payed to do this. We send them there to get a little slice of pork from the barrel for our district.
    They turn into these raging megalomaniac monsters.
    I don’t know how they justify themselves.
    A bloody bunch of parasites.

  8. 8.

    Splitting Image

    This is really strange. I’m always being told by movement conservatives that there is no danger in co-operating with authorities because an honest person will have nothing to hide.

    McCarthy might be the most honest man who has ever worked in Washington, next to Donald Trump himself. Obviously any communications he made on Jan. 6th or any other day will completely exonerate him, so why not simply release any material the commission is requesting and prove exactly that?

  11. 11.

    MagdaInBlack

    @Splitting Image: I was thinking that myself. Wasn’t that the argument for the parts of the Patriot Act ? ” If you’ve done nothing wrong, what do you have to worry about?”

  12. 12.

    Emma from Miami

    Open thread?
    I am throwing myself at the mercy of the techies. Can you recommend a tablet for blogging and writing? I want something fairly sturdy that travels well and does expect me to have an IT PhD to write and upload work.
    Thanks!

  13. 13.

    Tehanu

    What is Kevin McCarthy hiding? My guess would be, how much he sucked up to Dump in that call on Jan. 6.

  14. 14.

    Barbara

    @Tehanu: Au contraire. He is afraid of revealing how upset and frightened he was, partly because it’s inconvenient with the current “they were just tourists” party line, and partly because some might say he was being disloyal to TFG.

  17. 17.

    brantl

    How big of a moron do you have to be to Kevin McShitbag’s general counsel? And how much more of an idiot must you be , to marry Kevin McShitbag’s general counsel?

  20. 20.

    randy khan

    Carr is not only an FCC commissioner, he’s the formal general counsel of the FCC.

    I did notice that the statement quoted by the Wall Street Journal really only sounds like it supports McCarthy.  It’s just a statement of the basic requirement to protect subscriber privacy, which of course is not a perfect shield.  Among other things, telecom companies do have to comply with subpoenas for customer records; that’s a specific exception to the privacy law, and Carr certainly knows that.

  23. 23.

    dmsilev

    @Emma from Miami: iPad or iPad mini, plus a keyboard case if you don’t like screen typing. Also, check Apple’s refurb store for discounts on whatever model you might be interested in; the stuff sold there comes with full-length warranties so there’s no real risk.

  25. 25.

    dmsilev

    @Emma from Miami: The tablet-focused software landscape seems to be pretty heavily tilted towards iPads. For whatever reason, a lot of apps for Android tablets are just scaled-up phone apps. Works fine for some things, less well for others. You can certainly go the Android route; Samsung for instance sells some nice tablets, but I’d suggest looking carefully at your app needs first.

  26. 26.

    Kay

    ON
    @12News
    at 6: Arizona principal tells her story after three men – one with Zip-Ties – barged into her office & threatened to arrest her.

    Completely normal political Party with mainstream views.
    Just daily now, where they threaten people with murder and/or extra-legal arrests.

    This is Mesquite Elementary School, btw. They just roam freely in schools, sometimes they hit high school girls, other times they threaten the principal. Last week one of them in Michigan threatened to execute the school board. That’s just a Tuesday in the GOP.

  27. 27.

    James E Powell

    So the Republicans will file some bullshit lawsuit, the (invariably Republican) judge will issue a protective order, then set briefing on the issue for mid December, with oral arguments scheduled for late March. We know how this goes. We will see those phone records right after we see Trump’s tax returns, i.e., never.

  29. 29.

    Another Scott

    @Emma from Miami: You can probably use either an Android or iOS tablet, but one might suit you better than the other. Here’s an Android Police article about moving from Android to iPad for writing with Google Docs or MS Word (cached version as the site can’t be reached by me at the moment).

    Unfortunately, there seem to be hundreds of “best tablet for blogging” articles that seem to be little more than scores of affiliate links with seemingly machine-generated text. But maybe there’s something if you search on the specific software you plan to use.

    HTH a little.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  30. 30.

    Steeplejack

    @Emma from Miami:

    Android + keyboard = Chromebook.

    Something to think about, anyway. Tablets don’t have keyboards, which I think you would want if your main thing is blogging and other writing. So you are going to want a keyboard case, a separate keyboard or a tablet-like Chromebook with built-in keyboard.

    Rather than starting with “What should I get?,” maybe you should clarify—or tell us more about—what you want to do. When you’re clear on that it’s easier to winnow down the myriad possibilities and zero in some likely candidates.

    Are you going to use it mostly in “landscape with keyboard” writing mode? Do you plan to also use it in “portrait and poking at the screen” mode?

    Is size a concern? Most current tablets have 10" or 12" screens. Chromebooks can go up to 13" or even bigger. And not just screen size—does the overall size of the tablet matter much?

    How portable do you need your setup to be? One thing (tablet, tablet with case) is easier to wrangle than two things (tablet and separate keyboard), but you may have to make trade-offs to fit your needs.

    And, of course, there’s the question of how much you want to spend.

    My personal experience: I have an ASUS Chromebook Flip C100PA that I bought in 2017. It has a 10" screen and overall dimensions of 10¼" by 7¼" by 1". It is long in the tooth now, but it has served me very well. The built-in keyboard is fine for typing, but on my last extended trip out of town I bought a cheap external keyboard and mouse at the destination to use for extended work.

    Software updates for this model expired last year, so I have been sniffing the breezes about getting a new one. To be honest, the 10" screen size is fine, but I have been looking at 11"-12" models (mainly because 10" models seem hard to find). I don’t feel the need to go bigger than that. My “regular” computer is a quite portable ThinkPad with a 14" screen.

  31. 31.

    gwangung

    @Emma from Miami: Ah, you shouldn’t ask me, then….diehard Apple fan.

    But whatever you do, go with an integrated cover/keyboard combo. I do okay with the Smart Keyboard that Apple comes up with, as it does well to take notes. There are a lot of iPad specific apps, not just an upscaled iPhone app (one of my credit unions took a lot of heat for not doing an iPad specific app until they caved).

    You’ll be dealing with Apple’s walled garden, but since I do no deep work in the iOS system, I’m OK.

  32. 32.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Yeah, given what we know about the GOP I think it’s far more likely that McCarthy is worried that records will show that he was insufficiently devoted to the Orange Assh*le, and will be punished by the base.

  33. 33.

    Steeplejack

    @Steeplejack:

    ETA: The Chrome OS (with a little hand-waving) can be considered a superset of Android, but it’s designed for a “desktop experience.” If you have an Android phone, a lot of it will look somewhat familiar.

    You don’t get just upsized phone apps, although a lot of them will run on a Chromebook. You get real browsers and real apps, such as Microsoft Office, etc. And of course you can access Google Docs, etc.

  34. 34.

    James E Powell

    @eddie blake:

    It matters if WE have them not because of what they contain, but because it would mean that Republicans were forced to obey the same rules as the Clintons.

  35. 35.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Emma from Miami: The best value for dollar right now among the iPads is the 4th generation iPad Air. Here’s a good breakdown of the difference between the 4th gen Air and the 2021 released iPad Pro.

    https://www.techradar.com/news/ipad-pro-129-2021-vs-ipad-air-4

    So unless you need the Pro, your best bet is the 4th gen iPad Air.

    As for the iPad mini: I have one. The 4th generation. I love it in terms of size for reading. Its just that much bigger than my Kindle Paperwhite to make the reading experience for ebooks that much nicer and more comfortable. But its size is a limitation on using it for work. Not because it isn’t powerful enough to write – I have a bluetooth keyboard case in case I need to use it for work – but because it is just too small to use for serious prolonged work.

    I’m waiting for a start work order on a contract we were awarded back in April. Provided it comes, which is never guaranteed, my plan is to keep my 4th gen mini as a reader, to check email, things like that and add the top of the line, largest iPad Pro to do work on. But I’ll be using that iPad Pro as a work station in tandem with my MacBock Pro, which is getting a bit long in the tooth. So if you don’t need something to come as close as possible to being a laptop without being a laptop, the 4th gen iPad Air is probably the way to go.

  37. 37.

    Kirk Spencer

    My guess, for what it’s worth, is that Representative McCarthy was in contact with the insurgents during their adventure.

    I keep recalling that this isn’t “what was said” – that’s a really hard thing to get legal permission to see. But the register of calls in and out? That’s the easy one.

    But again that’s idle speculation.

  38. 38.

    frosty

    @Emma from Miami:  I’m not a tablet guy but I’ve been using an HP 360 which flips over from a laptop to a tablet for reading and I’m pretty happy with it. 13″ screen, so small for a laptop and large for a tablet.It does everything I want it to do; real computer (Windows 10) so I bought Office 2019 for it. Fine for reading Libby ebooks from the library in flipped tablet mode.​​

  39. 39.

    piratedan

    @Kirk Spencer: I’m not sure yet that McCarthy was working in coordination with the folks that assaulted the Capitol on 1/6/21, I am sure that he was in conversations with President Trump and KNEW that Trump had coordinated the attack.

    So I’m not sure that this is a whole lot better as Kevin has tried to have it both ways, by not participating (allegedly) he gets a certain plausible deniability, but if he KNEW that Trump was coordinating and involved, then that means he’s certainly just as complicit as he never shared that info with anyone.

    Gotten myself into the phase of “These weren’t very bright guys and things got out of hand” stage about this.  I think we can make an educated guess that there were at least three and possibly more MOC who were tapped into what was going on, Congressmen Brooks, Biggs and Gosar seem likely to have cooked up and coordinated with the WH and folks outside based on how they’ve spoken about events and their closeness to what took place at the rally.  Proof would be nice and it may even be close at hand.

    There’s a second tier of Congressional folks that may be involved or at least would have been wholly sympathetic and this may be a much larger pool than I once would have guessed, but I suspect that Cawthorn, Boebert and Greene would be in this group and quite a few others, like Chip Roy, Gohmert, Lesko and Gaetz and lets not forget the nameless/faceless staffers who handle the details with not just the shock troops but the folks that take this cosplay to another level and also help get the money and the game plans from the folks financially supporting this abomination to identifying possible targets and vectors of attack.

    It’s strange that all of the Conspiracy theory crap that these guys spin about Dems doing everything from being pedophiles to planning corporate ruin and how incredibly plausible it makes what the GOP did sound because as we’ve discovered painfully is that every accusation is indeed an admission of deeds and acts performed by the GOP.

    As this gets into the awareness of the public (at last), I do hope that Garland has the stones to do what needs to be done and if wrong doing is found, arrest these fuckers.  For some reason I think that if we find the political mouthpieces guilt to be evident, that perhaps that this will finally lance that boil of the MSM making allowances that both side are just the same.

  40. 40.

    satby

    @Emma from Miami:  I have both an iPad and an Android tablet, and I default to the Android almost every time because it works like my phone and (a bit like) my Kindle. YMMV, but I’ve even used the Android for payroll and scheduling at the doctor’s office, where the system tablets are iPads.

  41. 41.

    Spanish Moss

    @Emma from Miami:  I second those recommending a Chromebook. I write software for a living and my “regular” Lenovo work laptop runs Windows, which I hate, but Chrome OS is not a choice at my company. My personal computer is a Google Pixelbook, which I love. I am on my second one, a Pixelbook Go with a 13.3″ touchscreen. Before that I had a 12.3″ Pixelbook with 360 degree touchscreen, which I dropped on a tile floor and cracked pretty badly, and was old enough that repair would have been expensive if even possible. My new one doesn’t have the 360 degree rotation, but I found that I rarely used it anyway.

    I really love the keyboard. I spend much of my day typing and it is the most comfortable one I have ever used. The device itself is compact and lightweight and easy to carry around, it easily fits in a large purse. It has a long batter life and boots in seconds. Software updates are automatic so I always have the latest virus protection. And it is very intuitive to use. As Steeplejack mentioned above, if you are already a Chrome or Android user then it will feel familiar to you. I will never go back to Windows again.

  42. 42.

    trnc

    … The Jan. 6 committee has asked 35 telecommunication companies, like AT&T and Google, to hang onto phone records and other information related to the Jan. 6 attacks. CNN reported some of those logs include Republican members of Congress, former president Donald Trump and his family.

    House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who opposed creation of the Jan. 6 committee, warned those companies that they would be violating federal law if they handed over those phone records.

    At what point does a villager mention that these same clowns were fully on board with AT&T being used to siphon up ALL data in the name of national security?

    Oopsy! An FCC commissioner who has been out here defending a dubious legal claim by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy didn’t mention he’s married to Kevin McCarthy’s general counsel. https://t.co/6oMbrZcTnQ

    While it’s true that Carr shouldn’t have been commenting publicly, what is the excuse for any news org to publish any public official’s comments without knowing about that kind of conflict of interest? Doesn’t seem like it would have been difficult to find out beforehand, but gotta get the clicks first, I guess. And then double win by getting a second story out of it.

  43. 43.

    dnfree

    @Emma from Miami: I don’t know how things work now, but several years ago I did my research (I thought) and bought a very expensive Samsung note tablet from Verizon.  Two years later I wanted to add some software to the tablet.  It ran on Android, but not the version I had—jellybean or whatever it was then. So naturally I wanted to upgrade to the next version.  I could not.  Verizon said it was Samsung’s fault and Samsung said it was Verizon’s fault.  So there I was with a two-year-old tablet that cost me hundreds of dollars that I couldn’t use for what I wanted to.
    My Windows computers are supported for much longer than that. My iPhones have been supported much longer than that.  As I said, I don’t know how it works now, but that was the end of Android for me.

  45. 45.

    No One You Know

    @Emma from Miami: My Windows Surface Pro has been trouble- free, highly portable, and when hitched to a full- size ergonomic keyboard, supports all my power-typing and graphical professional and personal needs. And I can draw on it. I’ve had it five years and I’m not planning to replace it anytime soon.

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