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Much has been written over the past 24 hours about the breaking news shared by former President Donald Trump about the federal indictment against him by a Miami grand jury next week over alleged mishandling of classified documents. (For much more on the coverage at RedState, read here and here.) As we reported earlier on Friday, prosecutors made public the actual charges Trump is expected to face.
The aftermath of the indictment news about Trump drew a wide range of reactions from Republicans who weighed in—some positive and some not-so-positive—including from GOP primary opponent Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. One of those who gave strong support to the former president was House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). He released a statement Friday evening, calling it “a dark day” for the nation:
Today is indeed a dark day for the United States of America.
It is unconscionable for a President to indict the leading candidate opposing him. Joe Biden kept classified documents for decades.
I, and every American who believes in the rule of law, stand with President Trump…
— Kevin McCarthy (@SpeakerMcCarthy) June 9, 2023
McCarthy wrote:
Today is indeed a dark day for the United States of America.
It is unconscionable for a President to indict the leading candidate opposing him. Joe Biden kept classified documents for decades.
I, and every American who believes in the rule of law, stand with President Trump against this grave injustice. House Republicans will hold this brazen weaponization of power accountable.
But he didn’t leave it there. McCarthy expanded on his remarks on the Trump indictment in an interview with Fox News Digital that was released Friday:
McCarthy — who made the comments during a tour at a historical site in Pennsylvania — heavily criticized the DOJ for applying a double standard when it came to Trump and called for federal prosecutors to apply equal justice of the law.
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“This is going to disrupt this nation because it goes to the core of equal justice for all, which is not being seen today. And we’re not going to stand for it.”
He continued, repeating a phrase from his statement, then referred to how the Justice Department treated both former Secretary of State and First Lady Hillary Clinton and President Joe Biden differently “in the same situation”:
This is a very dark day in America when you think about what they’re trying to indict President Trump on. You’ve got a sitting president right now in the exact same situation. You have a former first lady, senator, secretary of state, that had the same situation that nothing was done to.
McCarthy also spoke about the lack of “equal justice” toward Donald Trump over the classified documents, describing the difference between Trump’s and Biden’s alleged actions—in particular, the fact that some of the documents were from the 1970s, when Biden was in the Senate.
“In America, some of our greatest strength is equal justice, and today it shows that it is not,” McCarthy said. “But what’s even worse upon this — this is a leading contender to run for office with an administration of a current president that has the exact same documents. Even worse from the aspect there are documents that President Biden has that he had when he was a senator.”
That seems to have stuck out to McCarthy, in part because when he was a member of the Gang of Eight, he learned “never to remove documents from the sensitive compartmented information facility (SCIF) where classified briefings take place. He questioned whether Biden removed documents from the SCIF when he was a senator.”
McCarthy asked, “How does he even have the possibility of a document from the Senate?”
He was incredulous about another instance of “unequal justice” he said he picked up on, contrasting how the DOJ has handled Trump, and how the House Oversight Committee has taken pains to ensure fairness” while working on the investigations into potential corruption involving business dealings, and Joe Biden and his family members:
….McCarthy said he has been in contact with House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, about actions they could take to ensure fairness in the cases. [….]
“You’ve got to treat people equally,” McCarthy said. “What’s going to be very concerning here — I’ve already talked to Chairman Comer and Chairman Jim Jordan of things that we can do to ensure equal justice.
McCarthy noted that Committee Chairman Jordan would likely have more surprising revelations soon to share from those investigations.
