- Kevin McCarthy defended the RNC after it censured Cheney and Kinzinger for participating in the Jan 6 committee.
- McCarthy said that "legitimate political discourse" refers to people who "were in Florida that day."
- But he declined to say whether he supported the censure resolution.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy defended the wording of the Republican National Committee's censure resolution against Republican Reps. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois and Liz Cheney of Wyoming, saying that the line about "legitimate political discourse" referred to RNC members "who were in Florida" on January 6, 2021.
Followed down a hallway by CNN reporter Manu Raju, McCarthy was asked about the controversial phrasing of the resolution, which referred to the January 6 committee as a "Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse."
"Everybody knows, anybody who broke in and caused damage, that was not called for," said McCarthy. "Those people, I've said from the very beginning, should be in jail."
But McCarthy disputed that the language in the resolution refers to the events of the January 6 assault on the Capitol as "legitimate political discourse."
"What they were talking about is the 6 RNC members who [the January 6 committee] has subpoenaed who weren't even here, who were in Florida that day," he said. Asked whether he supported the censure resolution, he declined to respond and continued walking.
—Manu Raju (@mkraju) February 8, 2022
This is a developing story. Please check back for more updates.