Entire CNN This Morning Crew Laughs at Trump Getting Torpedoed By McCarthy — And McCarthy’s Sharp Retreat

Anchors and analysts on CNN’s morning show cracked up at Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy’s whiplash-inducing critique and retraction on the subject of ex-President Donald Trump’s strength as a candidate.

McCarthy had a rollercoaster Tuesday, telling CNBC’s Joe Kernen he wasn’t too sure Trump can beat President Joe Biden in the morning, and snapping back onto Team Trump hours later.

On Wednesday morning’s edition of CNN This Morning, co-anchors Poppy Harlow and Phil Mattingly and a panel of CNN analysts got a big kick out of McCarthy’s dance:

POPPY HARLOW: You know who seemed worried, at least for a few minutes yesterday, was Kevin McCarthy. Here’s what he said.

PHIL MATTINGLY: (LAUGHS)

SPEAKER KEVIN MCCARTHY: Can he win that election? Yes he can.

JOE KERNAN: You think he can.

SPEAKER KEVIN MCCARTHY: The question is, is he the strongest to win the election? I don’t know that answer. But can somebody, can anybody beat Biden? Yeah, anybody can beat Biden. Can Biden beat other people? Yes, Biden can beat them. It’s on any given day.

POPPY HARLOW: What’s so striking, aside from the fact that he said that? Joe Kernan didn’t ask him, is he the strongest. Kevin McCarthy offered that up as part of the answer.

JESSICA DEAN: It is so striking. It’s the first time we’ve heard him kind of open up in that way. And look, Trump and his allies sincerely believe that they helped hand Kevin McCarthy the gavel, the speaker’s gavel.

Remember, let us go back to January when it was vote after vote after vote and they were twisting arms. They really believe like he owes, he owes them and he’s been pretty in lockstep with them for all of it. So to hear this yesterday, I think it caught a lot of people’s attention. It certainly caught the Trump campaign’s attention, the former president’s attention.

But I think it also caught the attention of the rest of the 2024 field. As I was saying a little bit earlier, they are waiting for cover. They are waiting for the rest of let’s call it the establishment, but we’re not using it in the traditional sense.

But the House speaker, people on the Hill, you know, he, Trump still has such a lock, especially on the House side with the House GOP, and they are waiting for a break. They’re, all of those candidates, where they can get a little light, a little light between the House GOP and Trump and even some people in the Senate.

The Senate, you know, you hear more from GOP senators. They’re clearly ready. A lot of them really like Tim Scott. They know him very well, but they’re ready for somebody else more so on that side than they would be on the House. So it was really interesting to hear that and then to see how quickly he started, had to kind of walk that back.

PHIL MATTINGLY: Three and a half hours. And it wasn’t like a step-by-step, it was a straight-up hammer, like… (crosstalk and laughter)

ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN: I mean, it never happened!

POPPY HARLOW: That didn’t happen! Guys, thank you. Stick around.

Watch above via CNN This Morning.