NYT reporters say they have more damaging tapes of Kevin McCarthy after releasing audio of him planning to ask Trump to resign over Jan. 6

• NYT reporters Alexander Burns and Jonathan Martin say they have more damaging audio of Kevin McCarthy.
• In audio released Thursday, House Minority leader McCarthy said he'd ask Trump to resign over Jan 6.

New York Times reporters Alexander Burns and Jonathan Martin say they have more audio of House Minority leader Kevin McCarthy, having already released tape which showed that McCarthy told GOP leaders he would ask for Donald Trump to resign the presidency in the wake of the January 6 riot.

On Rachel Maddow's MSNBC show Thursday, the pair shared audio of comments McCarthy made in which he told Republican lawmakers he held Trump responsible for the riot, in a stark contrast to public statements since in which he has defended the former president.

In extracts from their new book, "This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden and the Battle for America's Future," published Thursday, Burns and Martin first reported that McCarthy had said he was going to ask for Trump's resignation.

After McCarthy denied making the comment in a statement Thursday, the tape was played on Maddow's show, undermining his denial.

Burns said that the tape captures the "staggering gulf between what Republican leaders say about Donald Trump in public, and to his face, and what they will say about him in private."

Maddow then asked if they had audio to back up their claim that McCarthy had privately called for fellow GOP lawmakers to have their social media accounts banned, after Trump was kicked off Twitter and Facebook for allegedly inciting January 6 rioters.

"That is correct, we have a lot more on tape from this period, which is at the highest levels of American politics," Martin said.

"It is sensitive, it is delicate, and it is high stakes. We have it all on tape, and it's going to — I think — tell a very different story about this period than the story that many people are trying to tell right now."

The book, which is to be released in full on May 3, details the tumultuous end to Donald Trump's presidency, and President Joe Biden's first months in power.

McCarthy has portrayed himself as one of Trump's most adamant defenders in the GOP, but the audio could now place a strain on his relationship with the former president.

He is in line to become the next House speaker if, as is widely expected, the GOP wins back control of the House in November's midterms.