WASHINGTON – House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., on Tuesday expressed some doubt that former President Donald Trump is the best Republican candidate to defeat President Joe Biden and take back the White House next year.
In an interview with CNBCMcCarthy initially said Trump could beat Biden in November 2024.
“Yes, he can beat Biden,” said McCarthy, who added that “Trump’s policies are better and simpler than Biden’s.”
Asked whether Trump can win the general election given two criminal cases in which he is a defendant, McCarthy noted that he may not be the strongest option.
“Can he win this election? Yes, he can,” McCarthy said. “The question is, is he the strongest to win the election? I don’t know the answer to that. But can anybody, anybody beat Biden? Yes, anybody can beat Biden.”
He did not specify who the strongest GOP candidate might be.
McCarthy’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Hours later on Tuesday afternoon, McCarthy appeared to change his tune, saying in a norview with Breitbart that Trump is “stronger today than he was in 2016.”
“As usual, the media is trying to drive a wedge between President Trump and House Republicans as our committees hold Biden’s DOJ accountable for his two levels of justice,” McCarthy told the website extreme right “The only reason Biden is using his armed federal government to go after President Trump is because he is Biden’s strongest political opponent, as the polls continue to show.”
Shortly after his interview with Breitbart, McCarthy’s campaign sent a text message to supporters calling Trump “Biden’s STRONGEST opponent!” It included a fundraising link, asking for donations to be split between McCarthy’s campaign and Trump’s Save America PAC; the default allocation is $24.75 to McCarthy and 25 cents to Trump.
Trump was recently charged in a 37-count federal indictment over his handling of classified documents that he brought with him from the White House to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. In early April, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg separately indicted him on 34 counts of falsifying business records related to his alleged role in hush money payments toward the end of his 2016 presidential campaign. He has pleaded not guilty in both cases.
McCarthy’s remarks are remarkable given his alliance with Trump and his longstanding actions. Although McCarthy said days after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol that Trump should “accept his share of responsibility” for the riot, he visited Trump at Mar-a-Lago a few weeks later to smooth things over
McCarthy has repeatedly praised and expressed his support for Trump, who endorsed him as speaker this year only after he failed to get the hammer of the three-story vote.
McCarthy told reporters Friday that she supports a proposal by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and House GOP Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., to “eliminate” the two impeachments of Trump; the measure would be purely symbolic and not binding. McCarthy justified his position by claiming that both impeachments “lacked due process.”
“I voted against both impeachments. The second impeachment did not have due process.” McCarthy said, noting that he opposed a recent move to impeach Biden. “What came up this week was someone who wanted to impeach Biden. And that didn’t feel right to me, because there’s no due process, right? So shouldn’t you be consistent, especially with the Constitution?” “
