The crowd went wild on Thursday in Las Vegas when Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump told his audience at a campaign stop that Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) had dropped out of the running for House speaker.
He also took credit for McCarthy quitting the race.
“McCarthy is out — you know that right?” Trump said. “And they’re giving me a lot of credit for that because I said you really need somebody very, very tough. And very smart. You know smart goes with tough. Not just tough. I know tough people that aren’t smart. That’s the worst.”
McCarthy dropped out of the race for speaker Thursday seemingly not confident enough that he would garner enough votes from House Republicans — though he had secured support, including from the man whose job he was gunning for — House speaker John Boehner (R-OH).
Trump had criticized McCarthy’s ability to do well in the position, a stance he echoed on Twitter.
“But we need smart, we need tough, we need the whole package,” he told the Vegas crowd.
Watch Trump’s comment:
