House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) says that former President Donald "Trump is stronger today than he was in 2016."
McCarthy said as much in an exclusive interview that he did with Breitbart News.
To support his statement - that Trump is a stronger presidential candidate today than he was in 2016 - McCarthy pointed to a newly-released poll from Morning Consult.
The Morning Consult reports:
Trump continues to be the favorite for the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential nomination, with 57% of potential GOP primary voters supporting his candidacy. But for the first time since tracking began in December, Trump also leads Biden by 3 percentage points [44% to 41%] in a hypothetical general-election matchup, outside the surveys’ margins of error.
"Just look at the numbers this morning—Trump is stronger today than he was in 2016," McCarty told Breitbart.
McCarthy's comments here do have a bit of a backstory. The backstory stems from McCarthy's recent appearance on CNBC's Squawk Box. There McCarthy was asked if Trump could win the general election in 2024.
McCarthy replied:
Can he win that election? Yeah, he can. … The question is, is he the strongest to win the election? I don't know that answer. But can anybody beat Biden? Yeah, anybody can beat Biden. Can Biden beat other people? Yes, Biden can beat them. It's on any given day.
After McCarthy made this remark, members of the mainstream media decided to selectively quote him. Here's one example:
Kevin McCarthy says he thinks Trump could win the GOP nomination, but doesnt know if Trump is “strongest” candidate for his party.
“Can he win that election? Yeah he can…the question is, is he the strongest to win the election, I don’t know that answer,” McCarthy says on CNBC
— Kristen Holmes (@KristenhCNN) June 27, 2023
This all preceded McCarthy's interview with Breitbart.
The New York Times claims that Trump and his allies were "irked" at McCarthy's CNBC statement.
The Times further claims that McCarthy, soon after making the CNBC statement, personally called Trump to clear the air.
Trump has not publicly commented on the matter. But, McCarthy, in the Breitbart interview, did.
McCarthy said:
As usual, the media is attempting to drive a wedge between President Trump and House Republicans as our committees are holding Biden’s DOJ accountable for their two-tiered levels of justice. The only reason Biden is using his weaponized federal government to go after President Trump is because he is Biden’s strongest political opponent, as polling continues to show.
