(WASHINGTON) — House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy was mum Tuesday night when questioned by reporters about being heard on tape saying some Republicans incited violence around the Jan. 6 Capitol attack — and that others could be kicked off social media platforms.

But lawmakers told ABC News they expect the California Republican to explain his reported remarks behind closed doors Wednesday morning when House Republicans gather for their first meeting of the week.

In a new report Tuesday, New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns released recordings of McCarthy and other GOP leaders made in January 2021 after the riot, discussing comments made before and after the Capitol attack by far-right lawmakers and their concerns over how those comments could potentially provoke violence against other legislators.

“He’s putting people in jeopardy,” McCarthy said of Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., a Trump loyalist who criticized other Republicans for being insufficiently supportive of Trump, according to the recording of the Jan. 10 call published by The Times. “And he doesn’t need to be doing this. We saw what people would do in the Capitol, you know, and these people came prepared with rope, with everything else.”

McCarthy declined to answer multiple questions from reporters as he walked from his office to the House floor for votes Tuesday evening. But when asked by ABC News if he was worried about the comments jeopardizing his bid for speaker if Republicans retake the House in the upcoming midterm elections, he had a simple answer.

“Nope,” he said.

In the meantime, McCarthy’s colleagues are weighing the impact of his newly reported comments.

“He’s going to explain it, and we’ll go from there,” said Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-Ariz. “Let’s see what he says.”

“Trust is not a thing to be measured by one incident,” Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., told ABC News.

Asked if he would support McCarthy for speaker if Republicans retake the House, Higgins said, “I certainly have a vote and we shall see.”

Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., one of Trump’s first supporters in Congress, said “Oh my God, yes,” when asked if he trusted McCarthy.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., one of McCarthy’s loudest critics on Capitol Hill, said he “obviously showed an utter lack of leadership,” and “continues to defend people pushing false narratives, and that’s wrong.”

Gaetz tweeted out a statement blasting McCarthy and Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., the GOP whip who suggested Gaetz’s comments were “potentially illegal,” according to the recording published by The Times.

“Rep. McCarthy and Rep. Scalise held views about President Trump and me that they shared on sniveling calls with Liz Cheney, not us,” Gaetz said.

“This is the behavior of weak men, not leaders,” he wrote. “While I was protecting President Trump from impeachment, they were protecting Liz Cheney from criticism.”

Earlier Tuesday, Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., a senior member of the House Freedom Caucus, told the conservative One America News Network that McCarthy’s recorded comments regarding social media accounts were “problematic” and “the most serious thing.”

“If he had just been honest and truthful with us way back then, this would not be an issue for us today,” Biggs said. “We don’t want it to be an issue because we don’t want it to be a distraction.”

Fox News host Tucker Carlson also criticized McCarthy on Tuesday, saying on his show, “Those are the tape-recorded words of Congressman Kevin McCarthy, a man who, in private, turns out, sounds like an MSNBC contributor.”

“And yet unless conservatives get their act together right away, Kevin McCarthy or one of his highly liberal allies … is very likely to be speaker of the House in January. That will mean we will have a Republican Congress led by a puppet of the Democratic Party,” Carlson said.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden announced Tuesday that he pardoned three people who have “demonstrated a commitment to rehabilitation,” including 86-year-old Abraham W. Bolden Sr., who was the first Black Secret Service agent to serve on a presidential detail.

The president also commuted the sentences of 75 people who are currently serving long sentences for non-violent drug offenses.

“America is a nation of laws and second chances, redemption, and rehabilitation. Elected officials on both sides of the aisle, faith leaders, civil rights advocates, and law enforcement leaders agree that our criminal justice system can and should reflect these core values that enable safer and stronger communities,” Biden said in a statement.

Tuesday’s action was the first time Biden used his clemency powers during his presidency and came after advocates and progressive Democrats urged the president to fulfill his long-awaited campaign promise to use his executive authority to address mass incarceration and racial disparities in the criminal justice system, a crisis that was accelerated through policies like the 1994 crime bill, sweeping legislation authored by then-Sen. Biden that experts now say disproportionately impacted people of color.

Biden touted his clemency executive action as “important progress.”

“My administration will continue to review clemency petitions and deliver reforms that advance equity and justice, provide second chances, and enhance the wellbeing and safety of all Americans,” the president said.

While advocates and criminal justice experts have praised Biden’s clemency actions, some experts told ABC News the measures fall short of ensuring a streamlined process to address the backlog of petitions requesting clemency grants to nonviolent offenders.

“It’s great that 78 people received clemency in some form today, but it fades into the background of 18,000 petitions pending on the President’s desk,” said Ames Grawert, senior counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law School. “The President needs to come up with a system for ensuring that those thousands of petitions receive a careful and thorough review and the attention they deserve. It’s not clear to me that the current process is up to the task.”

In addition to the clemency actions, the Biden administration released plans to expand economic opportunities and ease reentry for formerly incarcerated individuals.

The myriad of new measures include a $145 million investment in job training programs for convicted felons in Bureau of Prison facilities, which will be done through collaboration between the Department of Justice and the Department of Labor. The administration also plans to expand employment opportunities post release, access to small business loan investments, as well as higher education.

Analysis from a 2017 report from the National Reentry Resource Center reveals that evidence-based reentry policies and programs have been shown to improve the outcomes of formerly incarcerated individuals.

“The actions we’re taking today will have a real impact for someone trying to land a job, find a safe and affordable place to live with their children and get back on their feet,” Susan Rice, Domestic Policy Advisor for the Biden administration, said while praising the new measures during a White House Roundtable with formerly incarcerated Americans.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — Capt. Samuel Choe, a former resident of Fort Gordon in Georgia, flew 17 hours from his deployment in South Korea to testify before a Senate subcommittee Tuesday about the mold exposure he said his family endured in private military housing and the chronic health issues suffered by his 8-year-old daughter, including a skin condition called severe atopic dermatitis — or severe eczema.

The degree of her condition, which he described as “potentially fatal,” had caused her to wake up in the middle of the night to parts of her body caked in blood from minor scratches or irritation, he said, adding that it would “haunt” his daughter “for the rest of our lives.”

“I do not recall ever seeing the type [of] conditions that we have lived under while we were at Fort Gordon,” said Choe, who has served in the military for 12 years and grew up in military housing with his parents.

Choe was among the family members and advocates who testified Tuesday at the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations about what they said was mismanagement, neglect and abuse they suffered in private military housing paid for using defense appropriations funds for service members’ on-base accommodations.

Their concerns — focused on one of the Army, Air Force and Navy’s largest private housing providers, Balfour Beatty — ranged from environmental hazards, including unaddressed mold, to logistical failures leading to delayed repairs. In total, Balfour provides housing on 55 separate Army, Navy and Air Force bases across 26 states, with a total of over 43,000 on-base homes occupied by roughly 150,000 residents, according to the company.

The hearing was held hours after the subcommittee released a bipartisan “Mistreatment of Military Families in Privatized Housing” report detailing alleged negligent responses and deceitful practices by Balfour Beatty.

The same company pleaded guilty last year to fraud after a Department of Justice investigation that uncovered instances of falsified data in Balfour’s internal data management software. Artificially augmenting the number of resolved work orders allowed Balfour employees to receive larger bonuses — which at the time was part of the company’s financial compensation policy, the probe found.

The plea deal included a $65 million fine and three-year probation during which an independent compliance body monitors the company’s activity.

The report released Tuesday specifically examines conditions at Balfour housing units on Georgia’s Fort Gordon Army Base and Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas between late 2019 and early 2022.

Tech. Sgt. Jack Fe Torres, who said his wife and children also suffered a host of medical problems after being exposed to mold in a Balfour home at Sheppard Air Force Base also testified. The family’s issues began with an insufficient water heater repair, he said, which led to a flood and then to mold.

While trying to address this issue, Torres said he noticed that work orders submitted to Balfour on his family’s behalf were doctored to minimize the severity of the situation.

“At one point, we were told that a large spot of mold in our mechanical room wall was just a burn mark,” he said.

The hearing included interviews with over a dozen military families and former Balfour employees. Two Balfour executives, including President of Facility Operations, Renovation and Construction Richard Taylor, testified as well.

“I reject the suggestion that it’s a systemic failure,” he said in response to Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., detailing a host of concerns flagged by residents. Taylor suggested Choe’s daughter, for example, could have contracted her illness outside the home.

Paula Cook, Balfour’s vice president of military community management, said the company did all it could for its residents.

Both insisted they were not aware of the data manipulation that had occurred, insisted there was no longer fraudulent activity going on at Balfour and said the issues the company was accused of were isolated and unrelated. An unnamed third party now fields Balfour military housing complaint calls, they testified, and the company has a new system to keep Balfour on-site employees from editing work order histories.

At one point, Ossoff bluntly asked, “Did your senior executives know that for six years, the company was engaging in fraud?”

Taylor said that “no,” he did not.

Ossoff followed up: “Would you know now if your company was continuing to engage in fraud?”

“Yes,” Taylor responded.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.