Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) defended the Republican effort to still nominate former President Donald Trump despite his conviction in last week’s hush-money trial.
CNN’s Manu Raju pressed McCarthy on whether it was a good idea for Republicans to nominate Trump as their nominee after he was convicted last week on 34 counts of falsifying business records.
“Is Donald Trump a good idea to be the nominee? The answer is 100 percent yes. Will Donald Trump win this election? The answer is yes,” McCarthy said. CNN’s “Inside Politics.”
“And interestingly, I was watching the first half of your show, and I heard the verdict just came out. The question is, should it have gone to trial in the first place? The vast majority of Americans understand that if Donald Trump hadn’t run for president, this would never have gone to trial,” he added.
Trump is set to officially become the Republican presidential nominee at the Republican National Committee convention this summer. A sentencing hearing in the hush money case is scheduled for July 11, just four days before the convention begins.
Republican lawmakers quickly rushed to Trump’s defense after the verdict was read last Thursday, with many arguing that the case was politically motivated.
Raju then asked McCarthy whether Republicans should be concerned about losing independents and women voters because of a conviction.
“Joe Biden is running on democracy and his economic policies. Those are the two main things people are turning against him on. Do people want four more years of this? They’re really missing out here on what’s happening to the American people,” he said, without saying whether he was worried about losing independents or women voters.
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