Kevin McCarthy (left) and Donald Trump.Photo: Getty Images (2)
Republican House SpeakerKevin McCarthyis pushing back on a report that claims he recently promised to “expunge"Donald Trump’s two impeachments.
“Can he win [the 2024 presidential] election? Yeah he can,” McCarthy said in an interview with CNBC last month. “The question is, is he the strongest to win the election? I don’t know that answer.”
Sources told Politico that Trump told his staff McCarthy “needs to endorse me —today!” after he saw the interview.
But rather than endorse the former president this early in the 2024 race, the California Republican allegedly made Trump a promise: that the House of Representatives would vote to expunge both of his impeachments before lawmakers go on recess in August.
Speaking to reporters in the Capitol on Thursday morning, following the release of the report, McCarthy pushed back, saying “There’s no deal,“Reutersreports.
Kevin McCarthy, then the House minority leader, stands with President Donald Trump at a legislation signing rally in February 2020.David McNew/Getty
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During his second impeachment, Trump received the most impeachment votes ever from members of a president’s own party when 10 Republican lawmakers joined their Democratic colleagues. McCarthy voted against both impeachments, but the sheer number of Republicans who voted for the second impeachment led some to question whether an expungement would even be successful.
“The problem is: If you have an expungement, and it goes to the floor and fails — which it probably will — then the media will treat it like it’s a third impeachment, and it will show disunity among Republican ranks. It’s ahugestrategic risk,” one senior GOP member told Politico anonymously.
Team Trump is allegedly not letting go of the idea of an expungement, with Politico reporting that “Trump brings up the matter inevery callhe has with McCarthy, prodding the speaker about when he will bring expungement to the floor.”
Trump, who announced his 2024 campaign in November, recently becamethe first U.S. president to be charged in a federal investigation(he was also arraigned earlier this year in aseparate investigationat the state level, the first time a U.S. president faced any form of criminal charges).
source: people.com
