House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Tuesday that he’s not sure if former President Donald Trump is the best Republican candidate to take on President Joe Biden — then quickly flip-flopped to praise the GOP’s most powerful leader.
In a remark that reportedly irked Trump’s MAGA loyalists, McCarthy on Tuesday morning refused to give unqualified backing to the former president in a general matchup with Biden.
“Can he win that election? Yeah, he can, [but] the question is: Is he the strongest to win the election,” McCarthy said on CNBC. “I don’t know that answer.”
Hours later, McCarthy seemed to backtrack on his comments.
“[Trump] is Biden’s strongest political opponent, as polling continues to show,” McCarthy told Breitbart News in a quickie interview branded as an “exclusive.” “Trump is stronger today than he was in 2016.”
McCarthy is a strong supporter of Trump’s presidential campaign, especially after the ex-president backed his own tricky bid to lead the fractious GOP caucus in the House.
But McCarthy has already raised some eyebrows by failing to openly endorse Trump, who has cemented a wide lead over Gov. Ron DeSantis and the rest of the crowded field.
DeSantis and Trump, meanwhile, squared off in dueling campaign events in the first-in-the-nation GOP primary state of New Hampshire.
The Florida governor ruffled some feathers in the Granite State by scheduling his event on the same day as Trump was speaking at the powerful Federation of Republican Women’s Lilac Luncheon.
“He’s having an event to compete with us,” Trump said. “The only problem? Nobody showed up.”
Trump admitted that he’s mostly focused on DeSantis because there’s no point in “punching down at No. 2, 3, 4, or 5.”
The GOP presidential field has expanded quickly as a slew of long-shot candidates throw their hats in the ring.
One of the dark horse candidates, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, suffered an embarrassing moment when he whiffed on a question about the Uighurs, the oppressed Chinese Muslim minority group.
“Who are the Uighurs?” Suarez asked conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.
