McCarthy Says Americans Shouldn’t Protest Over Potential Trump Arrest

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Sunday suggested that Americans shouldn’t respond to former President Donald Trump’s calls earlier this week to “Protest, take our nation back!” should he be arrested or indicted in a Manhattan hush-money investigation this coming week. “I don’t think people should protest this, no,” McCarthy told reporters during a House Republicans’ retreat in Florida, immediately adding, “And I think President Trump, if you talk to him, he doesn’t believe that either.” He proposed that Trump was simply trying to “educate people about what’s going on” and wasn’t “talking in a harmful way.” But whatever happens, he said, “Nobody should harm one another in this… We want calmness out there.” The speaker’s remarks came a day after he worked up a lather defending Trump on Twitter, calling the Manhattan probe “an outrageous abuse of power by a radical DA [Alvin Bragg] who lets violent criminals walk as he pursues political vengeance against President Trump.”