Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said he is endorsing former President Trump for reelection in 2024, weighing in after months of not formally declaring support for a candidate.
McCarthy said in an interview with “CBS Sunday Morning” that will air on Sunday that he expects Trump will be the GOP nominee in 2024 and that he will support him.
“I will support the president. I will support President Trump,” McCarthy said.
He said he also expects that if President Biden is the Democratic nominee, Trump will win reelection and Republicans will increase their number of seats in the House and win control of the Senate next year.
Robert Costa, CBS News chief election and campaign correspondent, asked McCarthy in the interview if he would be willing to serve in a Cabinet for Trump, which McCarthy replied that he would.
“In the right position. Look, if I’m the best person for the job, yes. I worked with President Trump on a lot of policies. We worked together to win the majority, but we also have a relationship where we’re very honest with one another,” McCarthy said.
McCarthy’s endorsement comes after the former Speaker announced on Wednesday that he will leave his House seat by the end of the year “to serve America in new ways.” He vowed in an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal to “continue to recruit our country’s best and brightest to run for elected office.”
“The Republican Party is expanding every day, and I am committed to lending my experience to support the next generation of leaders,” he said.
McCarthy became the first House Speaker to be removed in the history of the chamber in October, holding the speaker’s gavel for about nine months. Speculation arose after McCarthy’s removal whether he would run for reelection to his seat that he has held since 2007 or possibly resign.
McCarthy has regularly been a close supporter of the former president, including backing up Trump’s false claims of the 2020 presidential election being stolen. The two split over the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection, with McCarthy saying on the House floor that Trump “bears responsibility” for the attack and not calling off the mob of rioters.
But McCarthy increased his ties to Trump in the weeks following the attack, visiting him at Mar-a-Lago and later saying that Trump did not “provoke” the attack. He also supported removing former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) from her position in House GOP leadership over her condemnation of Trump’s claims.
Trump and McCarthy still reportedly had tense moments, including during McCarthy’s ouster. The Washington Post reported last week that McCarthy cursed at Trump after the former president refused to intervene and denounce removing him.
The Post reported that Trump’s frustrations with McCarthy included McCarthy not endorsing him and the House not voting to expunge his two impeachments.