House Speaker Kevin McCarthy refused to endorse President Donald Trump in the upcoming 2024 Presidential Election, a move that Politico suggests is designed to prevent a division within the House GOP over the 2024 election.
Back in 2022, McCarthy refused to say if he would endorse Trump in the 2024 election.
When reporters asked McCarthy if he would back Trump’s campaign, he answered, “You guys are crazy.”
Last month, McCarthy said “he doesn’t know” if former President Donald Trump is the “strongest” Republican candidate for president in the upcoming election.
After previously doubting Trump was the best candidate for the party in 2024, the speaker reversed course this week, telling conservative Breitbart News that the former president “is stronger today than he was in 2016.”
Politico reported:
While scores of McCarthy’s members have already backed Trump, plenty of other Republicans are steering clear of the polarizing former president in the GOP primary. That camp includes virtually every swing-seat lawmaker, many of whom fear that embracing Trump could spell their electoral doom next fall — as well as allies of Trump’s rivals, from Ron DeSantis to Doug Burgum.
So as much as McCarthy might risk alienating Trump by staying on the sidelines, the California Republican also provides the most political cover he can to his vulnerable members. The pressure on the speaker to choose sides will only grow throughout the summer, though, as Trump locks down support across the House GOP and questions intensify about why McCarthy isn’t fully embracing the man who helped deliver him the speakership.
Another House conservative, granted anonymity to speak candidly, said that a Trump endorsement might only make matters worse for McCarthy and his “incredibly split” conference.
“The reality is, if we get Trump, there’s probably a good possibility that we don’t keep the House” next fall, said this conservative, who has not endorsed in the primary. “McCarthy knows that. He knows that if Trump’s on top of the ticket, that we probably lose New York and California. … If we lose the House, there’s no way McCarthy stays as minority leader. He’s gone.”
That leaves McCarthy in a difficult position amid his party’s long primary battle. He controls one of the smallest majorities in modern House history, where a handful of disgruntled members can force a vote to remove him at any time,. At the same time, McCarthy is facing a brutal map to keep the House in 2024 — one that will become even more forbidding if the twice-indicted Trump emerges as the nominee.
Steve Bannon lashed out at the decision, blaming not the so-called “pencil neck moderates,” but the influence of donors and establishment leadership within the Republican Party.
“Kevin McCarthy refuses to endorse Trump,” Bannon said, “And they said, well, he’s trying to not have a civil war in the Republican civil war. With what? With these pencil-neck moderates? Give me a break. No, it’s the donors. It’s the donors. It’s the donors’ leadership.”
WATCH:
BREAKING: Kevin McCarthy Refuses To Endorse President Trump Due To Donors And Establishment pic.twitter.com/JrzNuDoOrX
— Grace Chong 🇺🇸 (@gc22gc) July 7, 2023
