Shirkey, the state’s top-elected Republican, told Gilchrist that he did not take back the points he was trying to make in a video that surfaced Tuesday in which he was caught saying the rioters were not Trump supporters and that the whole uprising was a joke. .
“I honestly don’t take back any of the points I’re trying to make,” Shirkey said in an audio of the conversation. “Of the words I chose, I do in the end.”
Gilchrist explained the conversation with Shirkey on Wednesday morning from his perspective and told CNN that he started the conversation by telling the majority leader that he would make a statement about the video.
“After he made his call this morning, I let him know that I was going to make a public statement about the remarks he made, about his hoax, about his remarks about the governor, and I gave him a nod. make a statement about it, “Gilchrist told CNN, referring to insulting remarks made by Shirkey in the same video about Democrat Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
‘I thought the conversation was over after I gave him the head, and he decided to come back to me rudely and double his conspiracy theory that anyone other than Trump supporters was behind the uprising that led to people died at the Capitol. “
In the video released Tuesday, Shirkey told Hillsdale County Republican Party officials that the riots at the U.S. Capitol are a hoax and that he advocates several conspiracy theories that imply political leadership.
“It was no Trump people,” Shirkey said.
“It was a joke from day one, it was all arranged in advance,” Shirkey said, claiming that rioters “got into separate buses, and it was all arranged by someone who finances everyone.”
“Why was there no more security? It was ridiculous, it was all staged,” he continued before pointing to conspiracy theories that the Republican leadership – including Senate minority Mitch McConnell – was involved in some way and questioned how and why some casualties occurred. or has been recorded.
Gilchrist claims that Shirkey addressed the comments directly in their conversation and told CNN: “He was referring to the hoax, that’s what he was referring to when he spoke to me this morning.”
Shirkey had earlier admitted that the video of his statements about the rioters was legal.
“I said a few things in a video conversation that did not fit the role I was privileged to serve,” he said in his apology on Tuesday. “I own it. I have many defects. At least two of them are passionately accompanied by a decrease in the restraint of the tongue.”
Based on his interaction with Shirkey, Gilchrist told CNN: ‘It is clear from the actions he took and the words he used that the apology was not genuine, and that he had no remorse for the comments. not, and only said that he might use a few different words, but the substance was what he believed, and he still believes that excuse was not real. ‘
“I really regret the fact that he decided to double it,” he added.
Lavora Barnes, chairwoman of the Democratic Party in Michigan, in a statement to CNN called on Shirkey to resign.
“Mike Shirkey has proven that he is totally incapable of leading and should resign immediately, given his recent outrageous allegation that the uprising and violence at the U.S. Capitol was a hoax,” Barnes said in the statement.
“Shirkey has bullied and funded paramilitary groups, and his latest remark has exposed him as a QAnon cook who continues conspiracy theories that incite violence for one group while trying to play the statesman for others. Shirkey’s irresponsible actions hurt public health endangered and endangered lives and made Michigan a national laugh. ‘
The initial meeting with Shirkey took place on Feb. 3 at Spangler’s Family Restaurant in Jonesville, Michigan, said Jon Smith, Republican Party Secretary. He told CNN that he posted the video on his personal YouTube page. “I did not trust that he would be honest with me, and I wanted to expose his lies, and I might need to keep it to my own record,” Smith said of his reason for filming Shirkey.
CNN’s Caroline Kelly contributed to this report.