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Asked specifically by Wallace whether former President Donald Trump had, as CNN has reported, told him in a phone call that the rioters cared more about the 2020 election than he did, McCarthy side-stepped, offering this:

"What I talked to President Trump about, I was the first person to contact him when the riots was going on. He didn't see it. What he ended the call was saying -- telling me, he'll put something out to make sure to stop this. And that's what he did, he put a video out later."

"Speaking to the President from inside the besieged Capitol, McCarthy pressed Trump to call off his supporters and engaged in a heated disagreement about who comprised the crowd. Trump's comment about the would-be insurrectionists caring more about the election results than McCarthy did was first mentioned by Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, a Republican from Washington state, in a town hall earlier this week, and was confirmed to CNN by Herrera Beutler and other Republicans briefed on the conversation."

So, McCarthy is engaging in a massive bit of underplaying of that phone call. But he's doing more, too.

He says Trump "didn't see" the rioters overtaking the Capitol building. Which is very hard for me to believe, given that a) it was on EVERY cable channel as it was happening and b) Trump watches cable constantly. It is, of course, possible that he turned off cable TV on the day that the Electoral College results were being certified (and shortly after his headlining of the "Stop the Steal" rally in DC) but, man oh man, is it unlikely.

Then there's McCarthy's timeline. He told Wallace that Trump ended the phone call with him by insisting that "he'll put something out to make sure to stop this. And that's what he did, he put a video out later."

Which, uh, not exactly.

"It's been more than two hours since a chaotic mob of rioters surrounded and breached the Capitol. Despite many calls from both Republican and Democrats for President Trump to demand his supporters leave the Capitol building, the President has not yet done so."

And remember that even AFTER the insurrection at the Capitol, almost 150 Republicans voted to object to the Electoral College results -- despite zero evidence to back up Trump's claims of fraud and theft.

McCarthy's whitewashing of what happened on January 6, then, is a survival tactic for him. In a party in which untruth about the election and January 6 has run rampant, the only way for McCarthy to hold onto power is to tell you that what you saw and heard is not what you saw and heard.

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The top Republican in the House is trying to rewrite history on the January 6 Capitol riot - CNN