Republican Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington state briefly became the focus of the Senate’s impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump when she affirmed on Friday night that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, in the words of a New York Times report, “told her that the former president had sided with the mob during a phone call as the Jan. 6 Capitol attack unfolded.” For the political heresy of truth-telling about Trump and supporting accountability for his actions to incite the insurrection, Herrera Beutler is being vilified by Tyrant’s Curse, a project that is recruiting challengers to run against congressional Republicans who did not fully back Trump in his false election claims or his impeachment.
Herrera Beutler publicly recounted a conversation she had with McCarthy about the minority leader's phone call to then-president Donald Trump during the insurrection. In answer to McCarthy's request to Trump to call off the rioters who were breaking into his office, Trump said, “Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are.” Herrera Beutler voted in January to impeach Trump.
House managers announced on Saturday morning that they were interested in issuing a subpoena for Herrera Beutler’s testimony but they instead reached a deal with senators and Trump’s legal team to read the congresswoman’s most recent statement about the phone call into the record rather than call her as a witness.
A Monday email to Tyrant’s Curse supporters complained that Herrera Beutler “tried to help Democrats’ unconstitutional impeachment efforts” and “betrayed her voters and supporters in WA-03, the Republican Party, the MAGA movement and President Donald J. Trump.”
“JHB Hates President Trump and the MAGA Movement So Much, She Was Ready to Help the Democrats,” The Tyrant’s Curse missive claimed.
“Herrera Beutler gave aid and comfort to the Democrats, the #fakenews MSM, The Left, and DC elites while trying to connect President Trump the riot on January 6th,” the email said. “Her actions were devious, calculating and obviously intended to ingratiate herself with a future employer (CNN?).”
Tyrant’s Curse is promoting what it calls the MAGA SELLOUT tour to visit the districts of Republicans it is targeting and recruit Trumpish candidates to run against them in GOP primaries.
Tyrant’s Curse is the brainchild of March for Trump organizer Dustin Stockton, who called his efforts on Trump’s behalf a “mission from God.” Stockton and his fiancée Jennifer Lawrence (not the actress) both spoke at the Jan. 5 rally in Washington, D.C., that featured Christian nationalism, adoration of Trump, and threats of violence. Lawrence was also caught up in an impeachment trial controversy over a tweet of hers that was mentioned by one of the House managers.
