Today’s GOP sure offers countless profiles in courage. Ron DeSantis, who’s currently in a distant second for the Republican presidential ticket, recently dodged a teen’s question about Donald Trump preventing a peaceful transition of power after losing in 2020. The Speaker of the House isn’t much better. The other day he dared say he wasn’t sure if the former president was the party’s best hope. And it didn’t take long for him to apologize.
On Tuesday morning McCarthy went on CNBC, where he was asked if Trump could get back into the White House. “Can he win that election? Yeah, he can,” McCarthy replied. “The question is, is he the strongest to win the election? I don’t know that answer.”
McCarthy didn’t even say Trump was the best person for the job. And yet his response got him dragged by MAGA world, who tolerate no dissent. Later that day McCarthy rang up Trump to offer a fulsome mea culpa:
McCarthy explained to Trump that he misspoke on CNBC, and also claimed that some reporters took some of his comments out of context, the sources said. Allies were pleased with McCarthy’s apology, though several Trump advisers told CNN they were still wary of the speaker.
That wasn’t all. McCarthy gave an exclusive interview with no less than Breitbart, where he went on to praise, no question, him. He even claimed the guy currently under multiple criminal investigations and whose brain is even mushier than it’s been in the past was “stronger today than he was in 2016.”
So McCarthy might not be exactly strong, but perhaps he’s not dumb. He knows he’s hanging onto his job by a thread, and that a large faction that’s taken over his party does not tolerate any bad-mouthing of the guy who reportedly muses about having sex with one of his daughters.
(Via CNN)