McCarthy Says Trump in ‘Stronger’ Position Now Than He Was in 2016

U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) speaks during an event commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre at the U.S. Capitol building in Washington on June 5, 2023. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

Former President Trump is in a much stronger position to win the presidential race next year than in 2016, according to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).

“Just look at the numbers this morning—Trump is stronger today than he was in 2016,” McCarthy told Breitbart News in an interview on June 27, referring to poll results released by Morning Consult earlier on the same day.

The survey showed that 44 percent of roughly 6,000 registered voters would support Trump—three percentage points ahead of President Joe Biden—in a hypothetical two-way matchup. Ten percent said they would back someone else while five percent were undecided.

Meanwhile, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is considered Trump’s biggest rival in the GOP primary, picked up 40 percent of support when assumed as the Republican candidate, losing to Biden by two percentage points. In this hypothetical scenario, 12 percent supported someone else while six percent were undecided.

In the crowded GOP field, Trump led with 57 percent of support, with DeSantis finishing second with 19 percent. Former Vice President Mike Pence finished third with seven percent of support.

Hours earlier, however, in a separate interview with CNBC, McCarthy said he was unsure if Trump was the “strongest” presidential candidate.

“Can he win that election? Yeah, he can,” McCarthy said, referring to Trump. “The question is, is he the strongest to win the election? I don’t know that answer. But can somebody, can anybody beat Biden? Yeah, anybody can beat Biden. Can Biden beat other people? Yes, Biden can beat them. It’s on any given day.”

Over 60 lawmakers have endorsed Trump for 2024, according to Ballotpedia’s endorsement tracker. Currently, McCarthy has not endorsed any GOP candidate for the White House race.

During the CNBC interview, McCarthy said Trump’s effort to confront various legal issues “also helps him” in the general election.

According to a poll released by Quinnipiac University on June 21, 62 percent of the registered voters polled said that the recent 37-count indictment against Trump for alleged mishandling of classified documents was politically motivated.

Speaking to Breitbart News, McCarthy criticized the American justice system under the Biden administration.

“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. “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.”

Hunter Biden’s plea agreement with federal prosecutors over two misdemeanor counts of tax evasion has drawn criticism from some Republicans. Trump said on his Truth Social account that the president’s son got a free pass from the Department of Justice (DOJ).

“Wow! The corrupt Biden DOJ just cleared up hundreds of years of criminal liability by giving Hunter Biden a mere ‘traffic ticket.’ Our system is BROKEN!” Trump wrote.

On June 22, Reps. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) introduced two different resolutions (H.Res.547 and H.Res.538) to expunge the 2019 and 2021 impeachments of Trump.

The resolutions would expunge the former president as if the various impeachment articles against him “had never passed the full House of Representatives, as the facts and circumstances upon which such Articles were based did not meet the burden of proving the commission of ‘high Crimes and Misdemeanors,’ as set forth in section 4 of article II of the Constitution.”

McCarthy has endorsed the expungement effort, telling reporters on Friday that the impeachments “never should have gone through.”