Kevin McCarthy Clarifies Mild Criticism Of Donald Trump Within Hours

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Tuesday morning said he didn’t know if former President Donald Trump would be the best candidate that Republicans could run against President Joe Biden next year. 

“Can he win that election? Yeah, he can,” McCarthy said on CNBC . “The question is, is he the strongest to win the election. I don’t know that answer.” 

Hours later, McCarthy revised his appraisal of Trump in an interview with the right-wing site Breitbart .

“Just look at the numbers this morning Trump is stronger today than he was in 2016,” McCarthy told Breitbart , referring to a new poll showing Trump beating Biden in a hypothetical rematch. 

Trump is leading the pack of candidates for the Republican presidential nomination, with his closest competitor, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, trailing by 37 percentage points in the poll. None of the other candidates has been charged with multiple crimes, a possible strength for DeSantis. 

As CNBC and others noted, McCarthy’s morning comment questioning Trump’s strength contrasted with the speaker’s usual policy of flattering Trump at all times. McCarthy seemed to resent the analysis of his statement. 

“As usual, the media is attempting to drive a wedge between President Trump and House Republicans as our committees are holding Biden’s DOJ accountable for their two-tiered levels of justice,” McCarthy told Breitbart, adding that Trump is Biden’s “strongest political opponent.”

McCarthy needs the backing of Trump diehards in the House in order to remain speaker, and he has seemingly sought to mollify the twice-indicted, twice-impeached former president and his supporters after even the tiniest slights. 

Following the riot at the U.S. Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters on Jan. 6, 2021, McCarthy said Trump “bears responsibility” for the attack, but within weeks he stood side-by-side with the former president and blamed “everybody across this country ” for what Trump and his supporters did. 

After saying in February that the U.S. Capitol Police officer who fatally shot a rioter “did his job,” McCarthy had a private meeting with the rioter’s mother , who has said the officer committed murder, a claim echoed many times by Trump. 

Last week, McCarthy said it would be “appropriate ” for the House to take the unprecedented step of “expunging” Trump’s two impeachments from the congressional record.