NYT’s Bumiller: McCarthy Isn’t Attacking Trump Because ‘He Wants To Be Speaker of the House’

EXCERPT:

BUMILLER: “Yeah. You know, Kevin McCarthy has just made the calculation, like Lindsey Graham, that being close to Donald Trump is important to his political future. His goal is to become Speaker of the House, should the Republicans win back the House in 2022. So he has made the calculation. People say he knows privately exactly what the problem is with Donald Trump. He’s as exasperated and appalled by his behavior as anybody else, but he's made the calculation that he’s too important to his political future to denounce him, to do what Liz Cheney did, and Lindsey Graham. And Kevin McCarthy is trying to, as he says, thread this very difficult needle and keep an open door to President Trump. But I don’t know how long this is — I don’t know if this is going to wear well over time. I don’t know what this is going to look like next year. That’s the big question. You know, you can see some of the support for Donald Trump ebbing away already. You can see how low his approval rating is right now. Again, I think it’s — I’m not sure it’s the right calculation right now.”