House Speaker Kevin McCarthy appeared to backtrack after he said he was unsure about former President Donald Trump being a strong candidate.
During an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” with host Joe Kernen, McCarthy appeared to fail to say Trump was the strongest candidate to beat President Joe Biden in the upcoming 2024 Presidential Election.
“Can Trump beat Biden? Yeah, he can beat Biden,” said McCarthy on Tuesday, adding that Trump’s policies were better for the U.S. than Biden’s.
When pressed again about whether he thought Trump was the “strongest to win the election,” McCarthy said, “I don’t know.”
Later in the day, McCarthy’s campaign appeared to be doing damage control over his answer on CNBC.
The Hill’s Emily Brooks shared a text on Twitter that read, “Trump is the STRONGEST opponent to Biden! Stand with Trump now and your name will be flag to Trump [and] his team.”
& here is a text blast from McCarthy campaign https://t.co/yw7eDVEGFx pic.twitter.com/MRp1kPvkR1
— Emily Brooks (@emilybrooksnews) June 27, 2023
McCarthy also followed up on his earlier comments in a later interview with Breitbart on Tuesday.
He said that the media was trying to “drive a wedge between President Trump and House Republicans.”
“Our committees are holding Biden’s DOJ accountable for their two-tiered levels of justice,” said McCarthy. “The only reason Biden is using his weaponized federal government to go after President Trump is because he is Biden’s strongest political opponent, as polling continues to show.”
The House speaker also said, “Just look at the numbers this morning — Trump is stronger today than he was in 2016.”
Recent polling has shown that Trump has gained momentum among Republican voters, despite his recent indictment charges.
The former president was indicted earlier this month and charged with 37 federal counts of mishandling classified documents, conspiring to obstruct justice, and for providing false statements.
A Morning Consult poll posted Tuesday showed that 44% of people said they would vote for Trump compared to 41% who said they would vote for Biden.
A recent NBC News poll shows that Trump is the front-runner among Republican voters — 51% of GOP voters said they would vote for Trump, 22% said they would vote for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), while 7% said they would vote for former Vice President Mike Pence.