Donald Trump has given his seal of approval for Kevin McCarthy to become Speaker should Republicans take the House in November’s midterm elections.
Mr Trump told The Wall Street Journal that he remained on good terms with Mr McCarthy after a recording of the GOP House leader telling party lawmakers he thought the former president should resign in the aftermath of the Capitol riots was leaked this week.
In an interview Friday, Mr Trump told The Journal that Mr McCarthy had changed his views “when he found out the facts”.
“He made a call. I heard the call. I didn’t like the call,” Mr Trump said.
The former president said that he felt it was a “big compliment” that Republicans who criticised him for his role in the insurrection had “realised they were wrong”.
Mr Trump added he would back Mr McCarthy’s bid for the Speaker’s gavel.
“Well I don’t know of anybody else that’s running and I think that I’ve had actually a very good relationship with him,” Mr Trump told The Journal.
“I like him. And other than that brief period of time, I suspect he likes me quite a bit.”
Mr McCarthy’s explosive leaked conversation with fellow Republican lawmakers had briefly threatened to upend his ambitions of becoming House speaker in November.
In an audio clip obtained by the The New York Times and aired on MSNBC on Thursday night, Mr McCarthy was heard saying he would urge Mr Trump to resign in the days after the insurrection.
“I’ve had it with this guy,” Mr McCarthy could be heard saying.
Mr McCarthy can also be heard saying the then-president accepted “some responsibility” for the 6 January attacks.
In Friday’s interview, Mr Trump denied accepting any responsibility for Capitol riots, contradicting Mr McCarthy’s claims.
Mr McCarthy was initially critical of Mr Trump for inciting the violent scenes on 6 January, when a violent mob of MAGA protesters broke into the US Capitol while the election results were being certified.
A few weeks later, Mr McCarthy travelled to Mar-a-Lago and posed for a picture with Mr Trump and has since voiced full-throated support for the former president.
During his presidency, Mr Trump reportedly referred to the GOP minority leader as “My Kevin”.
