Shortly after 9 o’clock that night — after a violent pro-Trump mob had finally been ejected from the Capitol — McCarthy delivered a call for unity that hit all the right notes.

“By returning here to complete the work we were sent to do, we are proving that our democracy cannot be disrupted by criminal behavior. We will not falter; we will not bend; and we will not shrink from our duty,” McCarthy told his colleagues.

Yet over the next six hours, McCarthy shrank from that duty. He voted to oppose the electoral college results in Arizona and Pennsylvania, embracing the position that the marauding rioters had been advocating as they chased him and other senior congressional leaders to a secure location.

Just one member of McConnell’s six-member leadership team voted with Trump on the electoral challenge, while five of the seven in McCarthy’s leadership team did.