Former President Donald Trump has responded to calls from some House Republicans to run for Speaker in the wake of Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) ouster this week.
Trump had emerged from court in Manhattan, where he faces a civil lawsuit for allegedly defrauding banks that was filed by state Attorney General Letitia James when he was asked about the position.
Fox News reported that Trump said he is focused on doing “what’s best” for the Republican Party after some GOP lawmakers suggested publicly that they would support him; you don’t have to be a sitting member of Congress to become Speaker, per the Constitution.
“Trump added that he has fielded numerous calls about assuming the vacant speakership, but suggested he was more focused on winning the presidential election,” the report said.
“He also said he would assist House Republicans with choosing a replacement for former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., who was ousted from the role in a dramatic vote Tuesday afternoon,” Fox News added.
Trump told reporters: “A lot of people have been calling me about speaker. All I can say is we will do whatever is best for the country and the Republican Party. We have some great, great people. A lot of people have asked me about it.”
“If I can help them during the process, I would do it. But we have some great people in the Republican Party who would do a great job as speaker,” Trump added. “My sole focus is being president and, quite honestly, with actually making America great again. Because we are living in a country in decline. This is a country that is failing badly. We’re not respected in the world, interest rates are through the roof, taxes are through the roof, inflation is horrible.”
Democrats are keen to point out that “no one is above the law” when they talk about prosecuting Trump, but one Democrat voter — a self-described liberal who said he voted against Trump twice — says James has put Trump “below the law.”
In an interview with Newsmax TV earlier this week, famed Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz argued that James doesn’t really care if a likely Trump conviction gets overturned on appeal after the election; she just wants him to be branded a ‘criminal’ so as to potentially diminish his brand.
“The goal of the ‘get Trump posse’ is simply to get him guilty, found liable before the election,” Dershowitz said during an appearance on “Newsline.” “Then they’ll be reversed after the election. They don’t care. Their goal is to influence the election negatively toward Donald Trump.
“Look, I’m not a Trump supporter. I want to see Trump lose in a fair election where there is no thumb of Democratic-appointed politicians on the scale, and that’s not going to happen if these efforts succeed,” Dershowitz, who defended Trump during one of his impeachment cases, said.
The legal expert went on to tell host Bianca de la Garza that Democrats are attempting to force Trump to burn through his money and resources by charging him “for crimes that never ever have been prosecuted before, like the New York crime of not disclosing hush money on a corporate form.”
“My God, Alexander Hamilton would have been put in jail under that theory,” Dershowitz said, adding that other wealthy real estate developers likely have inflated the value of their properties, too, for the purposes of getting a loan.
“There must be a hundred real estate moguls in New York who have inflated the value of their properties for purposes of getting a loan or other purposes, but she’s targeted only Donald Trump,” Dershowitz said.
“If she went after every single real estate person, she might say, No one is above the law. But what she’s basically saying is Donald Trump is below the law. We’re going to apply a different standard to him, and we don’t want the public to see it,” he added.
