CNBC’s Joe Kernen Scoffs At Kevin McCarthy’s Declaration Trump Will ‘Unite’ The Country: ‘It’s Going To Be Very Ugly!’
CNBC host Joe Kernen scoffed at former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s belief that former President Donald Trump could be the “strong leader” that “unites Republicans and Democrats” if he wins the election.
McCarthy appeared on Squawk Box Tuesday morning when the host, an open Trump supporter himself, pressed him on whether people in “this country can live with each other” after such a divisive campaign.
“Yes,” the former Republican congressman answered simply.
Pressing his point, Kernen said: “You’ve seen the articles written, though. You’ve got one person that’s been characterized as a threat to democracy and a fascist and a Nazi and [Adolf] Hitler – and there are really a lot of people who believe that fully and think that this person should be nowhere near the Oval Office.”
He continued, voicing internal GOP criticism: “On the other hand, [Trump’s] got people saying that [he does] not [have] a single primary vote, [and] has no, you know, business actually being commander-in-chief, geopolitically or anything.”
He added: “You’ve got two sides that are never going to come together. It’s going to be very, very ugly.”
McCarthy pushed back: “I believe something fundamentally different. I believe the country is so hungry for a strong leader that unites Republicans and Democrats.”
“You think that could be Donald Trump?” Kernan retorted.
“I do,” McCarthy replied.
The congressman expanded on his point: “But he’s defined so much already, Democrats won’t work with him. And this is something I’ve learned and watched Donald Trump. Donald Trump is not so rigid that he is so philosophically bent in one conservative manner that he won’t take a different position. He will, but the Democrats dislike him so much.”
McCarthy added that it was Democrats that would not “do the deal” with Trump, not the other way round.
Kernen interrupted: “His first two years were spent, you know, as a Russian agent for Vladimir Putin… Something will happen.”
McCarthy responded: “My hope tonight, the person who wins the electoral college wins the popular vote. And we move on. And the election is over and people are going to govern.”
Concluding, he said: “But I do believe the country is hungry for someone who would take the extremes on both sides and say, ‘you’re too extreme and I’m going to govern.’ And that will unite the country.”
Watch above, via CNBC.
