Kevin McCarthy Refuses to Make a 2024 Pick and Dings Trump in the Process: ‘Lots of Times, Whoever the Frontrunner is Today is Not the Nominee’

Despite a key late push from former President Donald Trump earlier this year to help him secure the post he’s long coveted, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) does not yet feel inclined to reciprocate.

Speaking with podcaster Dave Rubin in Washington for an episode of The Rubin Report posted Sunday, McCarthy was asked to weigh in on the simmering feud between Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), as well as the 2024 race at large. And the Speaker went out of his way to avoid siding with either.

“So you want somebody else in the White House, right?” McCarthy said. “You’ve got to understand too, what’s the debate going to be about? All of the things [President Joe] Biden has done that somebody else could do better. I think that resonates more with the public, gets more people to vote. It’s about addition, not subtraction.”

And despite Trump helping the California congressman lock down the speakership, McCarthy not only did not feel pressure to back him in this early stage of the race, he made a comment which could be perceived as a shot at the former president.

“Lots of times, whoever the frontrunner is today is not the nominee,” McCarthy said.

At this point, Trump is the runaway frontrunner to win the Republican nomination. Many recent polls show the former president with a lead of over 30 points on his GOP rivals — a lead which has expanded since news of his indictment in New York became public.

Watch above.