McCarthy urges Trump supporters to refrain from protests if he's indicted
WASHINGTON (TND) — House Speaker Kevin McCarthy pre-emptively tried to tone down the potential civil unrest that may follow a potential indictment and or arrest of former President Donald Trump.
“I don’t think people should protest this, no. And I think President Trump, if you talk to him, he doesn’t believe that, either,” McCarthy, R-Calif., said during a news conference Sunday at the House Republicans’ retreat in Orlando.
Nobody should harm one another,” he added. “We want calmness out there.
McCarthy’s comments came following several posts from the twice-impeached former president during the weekend. Not only did he claim without evidence that he would be indicted Tuesday but he also called for his followers to protest such a possible legal action.
“IT’S TIME!!! WE ARE A NATION IN STEEP DECLINE, BEING LED INTO WORLD WAR III BY A CROOKED POLITICIAN WHO DOESN’T EVEN KNOW HE’S ALIVE, BUT WHO IS SURROUNDED BY EVIL & SINISTER PEOPLE WHO, BASED ON THEIR ACTIONS ON DEFUNDING THE POLICE, DESTROYING OUR MILITARY, OPEN BORDERS, NO VOTER I.D., INFLATION, RAISING TAXES, & MUCH MORE, CAN ONLY HATE OUR NOW FAILING USA,” Trump wrote on his own social media platform, Truth Social, Saturday. “WE JUST CAN’T ALLOW THIS ANYMORE. THEY’RE KILLING OUR NATION AS WE SIT BACK & WATCH. WE MUST SAVE AMERICA!PROTEST, PROTEST, PROTEST!!!”
In a follow up post, Trump called on his followers to “protest” and to “take our nation back.”
Journalists and commentators have noted since that his rhetoric Saturday and Sunday bore a striking resemblance to the kind of language he used in the lead up to the riot and insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6, when his supporters tried to get Congress to reject the results of the 2020 presidential election.
McCarthy, who allegedly told Republicans behind closed doors that he believes Trump bears the responsibility for the day’s events – and is said to have called the then-president and beg him to call off the rioters – could be concerned about a similar outbreak of uproar from the former president’s supporters.
Regardless, McCarthy joined the chorus of conservative voices condemning Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s investigation into Trump over alleged hush money payments he made to porn actor Stormy Daniels and playboy model Karen McDougal in the months immediately leading up to the 2016 presidential election. Both women claim to have had sexual encounters with the former president before his political career – Daniels claims the encounter happened in 2006, shortly after the birth of Trump’s son Barron.
"Lawyer after lawyer will tell you this is the weakest case out there, trying to make a misdemeanor a felony,” McCarthy later in the news conference.
“The last thing we want is somebody putting their thumb on the scale [of justice] simply because they don’t agree with somebody else’s political view,” he added. “That is what’s wrong, and that’s what infuriates people. And this will not hold up in court if this is what he wants to do.”
In 2018, Trump told Fox News that Michael Cohen, who is a witness in the hush money case, “represents me in this crazy Stormy Daniels deal.”
