Kevin McCarthy invited to sit for interview with Jan. 6 House committee investigators

(Image credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) has extended an invitation to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to speak with the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

"If he has information he wants to share with us, and is willing to voluntarily come in, I'm not taking the invitation off the table," Thompson, the committee's chair, told ABC News on Wednesday. Thompson's comments came in response to an interview McCarthy gave earlier this week to KBAK-TV, when he said he doesn't have "anything to add" to the investigation but "wouldn't hide from anything, either."

"If Leader McCarthy has nothing to hide, he can voluntarily come before the committee," Thompson told ABC News, adding that he would consider sending a formal request to McCarthy.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

During former President Donald Trump's second impeachment trial, Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.) said McCarthy told her that during the riot, he asked Trump to help put a stop to the violence, but was ignored. McCarthy admitted to speaking with Trump on Jan. 6, and later told Fox News that Trump "didn't see" what was happening at the Capitol as the riot developed.

Explore More

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.