McCarthy says he does NOT think people should protest if Trump is arrested
Speaker Kevin McCarthy said he doesn’t think people should protest if President Trump is arrested Tuesday, but defended the former president who recently called for public expressions of outrage.
“I don’t think people should protest this, no,” the California Republican told reporters on the first day of the House GOP retreat in Orlando, Florida. … I think, President Trump, when you talk to him, he doesn’t believe that either.”
McCarthy then suggested Trump’s words had been “misinterpreted” and that he was just trying to “educate people about what’s going on.”
Trump previously claimed on his Truth Social platform that he expects to be arrested as early as Tuesday, while explicitly calling on his supporters to “protest, take our nation back.”
McCarthy said he doesn’t think people should protest if President Trump is arrested Tuesday, but defended the former president who recently called for public expressions of outrage
“He doesn’t talk in a harmful way and no one should be hurting each other if this happened,” McCarthy said, adding that he had not spoken to the former president since his revelation.
“If this were to happen, we want peace there.”
Trump said he expects to be arrested this week on New York State charges related to a payment he made ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
Prosecutors allege he violated a New York law that prohibits falsifying business records when he classified a $130,000 payment to Daniels as “legal expenses.”
Trump could be charged with falsifying company records related to payments to his former attorney, Michael Cohen, who was serving jail time after pleading guilty to using campaign finance in connection with Daniels.
The former president could also be charged with electoral law violations.
Asked if Trump should continue his 2024 run if convicted of a crime, McCarthy repeatedly replied, “The Constitution allows him to.”
McCarthy said any attorney would conclude that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case against Trump is the “weakest case there is.” He said the charges “will not hold up in court.”
McCarthy told Bragg, “Stop chasing people, because you have political differences.”
“This state is getting more populated by this Manhattan district attorney,” McCarthy said. He called Florida Governor Ron DeSantis a “great governor.”
When asked about DeSantis calling the war between Russia and Ukraine a “territorial dispute” that the US should not be involved in, McCarthy said, “I’m really concerned about Russia’s aggression.”
McCarthy promised “action” from the armaments subcommittee investigating whether federal funds were used in the Trump impeachment.
The comment came as the House Republican conference met in Florida to discuss their agenda for the future.
McCarthy noted that the House had passed 35 bills so far this Congress, and 30 of them had received Democratic votes. However, many of those bills will never see the light of day in the Democratic-led Senate.
He praised Republican moves to reopen the House of Representatives to the public, lift the military’s vaccine mandate, create committees to investigate China and the government’s armaments.
“House Republicans have Democrats defending this Congress,” said GOP Whip Tom Emmer.
“Republicans are offended,” he added. ‘We work as a team.’
McCarthy also praised his relationship with his Democratic counterpart, Hakeem Jeffries. It’s a seemingly closer relationship than he had with former speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“I had no relationship with Hakeem before he became leader, but I will continue to work hard to treat him the way I thought every minority leader should be treated,” McCarthy said.
“I should have been,” he added in a concealed shot at Pelosi. “I’m reaching for [Jeffries] on many different topics.’
McCarthy said he and Jeffries sat on the select committee on China competition and urged them to work in a bipartisan manner.
On the new China-brokered deal between Saudi Arabia and Iran, the speaker said: “That used to be America’s role.”
The speaker also praised steps to “clean up” the Intel committee, which he said “has become the impeachment committee for too long.”
When asked if the GOP-led House had a duty to act after the collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank, McCarthy largely blamed inflation.
“I don’t believe it’s a regulation issue,” McCarthy said, adding that the “real culprit” is spending money.
He said the Financial Services Committee will hold hearings to get to the bottom of the matter. Did California regulators miss something? I think we’re going to have a lot of questions for Governor Gavin Newsom about this as well,” he said.