GOP frontrunner Donald Trump said Friday that Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) might not be cut out to be the next House speaker after his comments that the Benghazi committee scored political points by dinging Hillary Clinton.
A frequently outspoken Trump hesitated when asked during a phone-in to MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” whether he would support McCarthy as John Boehner’s (R-OH) successor.
“Um, I would like someone who’s very tough and that can negotiate with the Democrats, and I don’t know that he’s that person,” Trump said. “I don’t know that that’s him, and obviously, the statement hurt him badly in the eyes of some.”
He also said the next Speaker should be “tough, smart, and cunning.”
Trump demurred when asked for his take on the Benghazi remarks, but said Democrats have seized on the opportunity to attack Republicans.
“It would have been nice if he didn’t say it, certainly, because then there’d be no dispute and you could get on with Benghazi as a very serious group of people that had been working on it a long time,” Trump said.
McCarthy came under fire from Democrats and Republicans this week after he bragged about the House Select Committee on Benghazi, which first uncovered Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server, for damaging a previously “unbeatable” Clinton in presidential polls.
Watch Trump’s full exchange:
