Republican former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Sunday that “everybody should” accept the results of the upcoming presidential election.
“I think Hillary Clinton should accept the 2016” race, he told CNN’s Manu Raju on “Inside Politics,” though Clinton did concede the 2016 race, saying the Constitution requires a peaceful transfer of power.
At the beginning of 2021, McCarthy, then the House Minority Leader, gave the green light to an effort by conservative lawmakers to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory and ultimately voted in favor of overturning the election results of two states after the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol.
A few months later, however, McCarthy repeatedly rejected the notion that he was trying to overturn the election during a news briefing. McCarthy tried to make the case that he was objecting to only two states – Arizona and Pennsylvania – which he argued would ultimately not have changed the outcome of the election.
McCarthy had also backed a 2020 Texas lawsuit to invalidate millions of votes, another effort by Republicans to swing the election to Trump.
There is no evidence of any widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
McCarthy previously said he believes Trump will receive the 2024 Republican presidential nomination and he’ll support the former president in seeking a second term – including as a potential member of the administration.
