McCarthy does rapid U-turn after saying he ‘doesn’t know’ if Trump is strongest candidate

President Kevin McCarthy backtracked on his comments questioning whether Donald Trump was the strongest candidate to win the 2024 nomination that raised eyebrows on Tuesday morning.

The speaker blamed the media for “trying to drive a wedge” and insisted that Trump was stronger than in 2016, hours after his initial remarks.

“As usual, the media is trying to drive a wedge between President Trump and House Republicans as our committees hold Biden’s DOJ accountable to their two-tiered levels of justice,” McCarthy said in a statement to DailyMail.com.

“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. Just look at the numbers this morning – Trump is stronger today than he was in 2016.’

The GOP chairman, who is an ally of Trump, had said on CNBC Tuesday morning that he thought Trump could win the GOP nomination was not sure Trump was the “strongest” to win a general election.

“Yeah, he can beat Biden,” McCarthy said. “Trump’s policies are better, simpler than Biden’s policies.”

‘Can he win this election? Yeah he can,” McCarthy said. “The question is whether he is the strongest to win the election, I don’t know that answer.” But can anyone – can anyone beat Biden? Yeah, anyone can beat Biden.

The GOP chairman, who is an ally of Trump, told CNBC on Tuesday morning that he believes Trump could win the GOP nomination isn’t sure Trump is the “strongest” to win a general election.

Trump leads GOP polls against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. But a recent DailyMail.com poll showed DeSantis faring slightly better than Trump in a hypothetical matchup against President Biden.

The poll of 1,000 likely general election voters found that in a Biden-DeSantis matchup, the Democratic nominee would get 44% of the vote to 43%.

Democratic voters appeared more motivated in an election against Trump, giving Biden a 46% lead over the former president’s 44%.

The Trump team did not respond to a request for comment on McCarthy’s remarks. Trump neither fell out with the speaker nor won his approval – leaving their relationship in a precarious place.

Although sources close to Trump said he had privately complained about the recent debt limitation agreement – one of McCarthy’s signature achievements – he has not aired his grievances publicly.

Meanwhile, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, one of Trump’s biggest rivals, tore up the deal on Fox and Friends in May.

“Before this deal, our country was heading toward bankruptcy. And after this deal, our country will always be heading toward bankruptcy. To say you can do $4 trillion in raises over the next year and a half is a tremendous amount of expense,’ DeSantis said.

On Friday, McCarthy told reporters he supported a proposal by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, RN.Y., to ‘remove’ both impeachments of Trump, though it’s not clear there are the votes to pass the measure.

“I voted against both impeachments. The second arraignment had no due process. said McCarthy.

He noted that he opposed bringing forward a resolution to impeach President Biden as well.

“What came up this week was that someone wanted to impeach Biden on the ground. And I didn’t think that was just because there’s no due process, did you? So shouldn’t you be consistent, especially with the Constitution? »

Trump urged House members to vote for McCarthy in the controversial 15-vote speakers race, making appeals on behalf of the GOP leader and urging all 20 Freedom Caucus supporters to vote for McCarthy.