Kevin McCarthy is soon to be looking for a job, and he said earlier in the week that he’d be happy to take a position with Donald Trump.
The ousted Speaker’s comments followed his announcement during a national interview that he would be supporting the 45th president as he looks to reclaim the White House.
“I will support the president. I will support President Trump,” McCarthy said in excerpts of an interview to air this weekend on “CBS News Sunday Morning.”
Politico writes:
Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy is leaving Congress this month but not ruling out another government position — or a spot in a Trump administration cabinet.
“Yes, I believe in public service,” McCarthy told reporters during an impromptu Thursday exit interview when asked if he would accept a position under the former president with whom he’s had a roller-coaster relationship.
As he prepares to step down before the end of his term, a move he had ruled out after his ouster as speaker, McCarthy reflected on his tumultuous last year in Congress. His 2023 started with a grueling 15-round battle to win the gavel and ended with eight GOP colleagues voting to help Democrats boot him from the top spot.
After delivering his farewell speech, McCarthy again blasted the fellow Republicans who helped push him out and said he has no regrets. His chief nemesis remains Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who led the charge to oust McCarthy as speaker — though the Californian demurred when asked if he would use his fundraising connections to help GOP primary challengers to Gaetz and the other seven lawmakers who voted to eject him from the speakership.
McCarthy and Trump have often had a love-hate relationship. Following the Capitol mobbing of January 6, 2021, the California Republican had harsh words for Trump supporters and blamed the former president for what happened. However, realizing he needed Trump’s support if he ever wanted to be Speaker of the House, he patched things up a few weeks later.
The move paid off. In 2023, Trump endorsed McCarthy for Speaker of the House, despite receiving loud objections from some of his most ardent MAGA supporters.
McCarthy has urged Trump to run a positive campaign rather than focusing on the election of 2020, saying that it’s the only thing he needs to do to ensure a Republican victory in 2024.
