Punchbowl news founder Anna Palmer breaks down alleged “screaming match” between Trump and leader McCarthy

LOS ANGELES - "Kevin McCarthy has been one of Donald Trump’s closest allies on Capitol Hill, and that relationship came to a friction point on Wednesday."

In the aftermath of Wednesday’s protests at the Capitol, political journalist Anna Palmer spoke with FOX 11’s Elex Michaelson about a phone call between the President and the House Minority Leader in which the two allegedly came to verbal blows.

This according to reporting by Palmer’s recently-launched news outlet Punchbowl News.

"[McCarthy] called the President, they got into a screaming match, we broke that news, over the fact that the Minority Leader, McCarthy, wanted the President to put out a statement, to call off his supporters, that turned into this mob, as the Capitol was under assault."

Palmer said that the President initially refused to put out a statement, before issuing a Tweet, and then a video statement, on his now-permanently-suspended account.

In his initial video response, removed Wednesday evening by Twitter, the President told supporters he felt their pain and hurt, that their "landslide election" was stolen, but that "we have to have law and order," and that protestors should "go home in peace."

According to Palmer, those statements were not exactly what McCarthy and others in Republican leadership were looking to hear.

"I think there was massive frustration," Palmer told Michaelson. "Not just from Kevin McCarthy, but from Republicans in general, that the President had basically fomented this rally into a charging mob of protestors onto The Capitol, you know, calling for them to go the Capitol, and that he had really incited this violence."

McCarthy has yet to respond to reports of the alleged ‘screaming match,’ but as Punchbowl reported on Saturday, the House Minority Leader is planning a conference call this week with donors to discuss "the future," potentially, as Punchbowl implied, "a Trump-less future."

And despite President Trump’s term being set to end at noon on January 20, that "Trump-less future" could arrive even sooner, as early next week, Democrats, led by Representatives David Cicilline (D-RI), Jamie Raskin (D-MD), and Ted Lieu (D-CA), also appear ready to file a new article of impeachment over alleged "incitement of insurrection."

"It is very hard to crystal ball what is going to happen when Donald Trump is involved," Palmer said of the chances that the President would be removed before January 20. "House Democrats appear to right now be figuring out how this impeachment process could work… we’re watching very closely."

In a wide-ranging interview on The Issue Is, Palmer also discussed the implications of Democrats taking control of the Senate following Tuesday’s Georgia runoff victories, her reaction to seeing the Capitol being breached, and the future of media, specifically in regards to Punchbowl News, which she launched this week with Jake Sherman and John Bresnahan.

The Issue Is is California's only statewide political show. Watch FOX 11 Los Angeles Fridays at 10:30PM and Sundays at 9:00AM. For more showtimes and information, go to TheIssueIsShow.com.

Politics Capitol Riot