Trump taking credit for McCarthy dropping out of House speaker's race

Donald Trump.
(Image credit: Isaac Brekken/Getty Images)

You may think you know why Kevin McCarthy dropped his bid to become House speaker, but Donald Trump is here to tell you it's all because of him.

During a campaign event in Las Vegas on Thursday, Trump announced: "They're giving me a lot of credit for that because I said you really need someone very, very tough and very smart. You know, smart goes with tough. I know tough people that aren't smart. That's the worst. We need smart, we need tough, we need the whole package."

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.