House Speaker Kevin McCarthy Sunday pushed back on former President Donald Trump’s call to protest if he’s charged in connection to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s investigation into money paid to adult film actress Stormy Daniels.
“If this was to happen, we want calmness out there,” the California Republican said Sunday during a press conference at the House GOP issues retreat, adding that there should be no “violence or harm,” reports The Hill.
Trump said in a Truth Social post Saturday that he expects to be arrested Tuesday, and he called on supporters to “protest, take our nation back” in response.
NBCNews: RT @TODAYshow: House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Americans should not protest if former President Trump is indicted and arrested in a hush-money investigation in New York, contradicting Trump, who called on his supporters to “Protest, take our n… pic.twitter.com/Ynf5iXYDDI
— The Believer ™ (@maxvaldes) March 20, 2023
"I don't think people should protest this, no. I think President Trump, if you talk to him, he doesn't believe that either … Nobody should harm one another in this. This is why you should really make law equal … No, I have not spoken to Trump."
— Howard Mortman (@HowardMortman) March 20, 2023
— @SpeakerMcCarthy pic.twitter.com/UaZwFTISGW
“I don’t think people should protest this stuff,” McCarthy commented, but also suggested that the former president was “not talking in a harmful way” but instead was trying to “educate people about what’s going on.”
“Nobody should harm one another,” he said. “This is why you should really make law equal because if that was the case, nothing would happen.”
Meanwhile, McCarthy has slammed Bragg’s investigation as a political attack and said he expects Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of Government, to take action.
He also said he wants an investigation into whether any federal funds were used to help finance the probe against Trump.
“Lawyer after lawyer after lawyer will tell you this is the weakest case out there,” the speaker said. “The last thing we want to have is somebody putting their thumb on the scale simply because they don’t agree with somebody else’s political view. That is what’s wrong, and that’s what infuriates people. This will not hold up in court.”
Meanwhile, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who supports both McCarthy and Trump, told reporters in Orlando Sunday that “we don’t need to protest” an arrest of the former president, but she also said she does not think there is “anything wrong” with calling for protests and that people “have a right to choose.”
“Americans have the right to assemble and the right to protest,” she said, adding that she believes Trump “means peaceful” with his comments.
“He doesn’t have to say peaceful for it to mean peaceful,” she said. “Of course, he means peaceful.”
Greene said she will not be protesting an arrest, as she doesn’t “need to protest,” but she will support Trump at his upcoming rally in Texas.
“I know what I’m going to do with the 2024 election,” she said. “I’m going to vote every single Democrat out of office that I possibly can, and I’m going to spend all of my energy fundraising and fighting to end this extreme corruption in America. That’s what I think we should do.”