House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy says he hasn't picked a favorite in the GOP presidential race, but he defended front-runner Donald Trump against charges he is not a real conservative.
"I think Donald Trump is a conservative. He has identified himself as a Republican," McCarthy told reporters in his office on Monday,
The Hill reported.
"He's in the business world, I've seen his actions that he's taken," McCarthy said of Trump. "If you want to take every aspect you've seen, maybe on his television show, he's made conservative decisions, too. I take him as a conservative."
Still, Trump's lack of political experience makes it hard to determine his political positions, McCarthy said, according to the
Washington Examiner.
"What has he voted on?" McCarthy said.
If Trump or Texas Sen. Ted Cruz win in Iowa, it "means it's not over yet," he added. "I think New Hampshire and the others have probably mattered more for who is the Republican nominee than Iowa."
Whoever the nominee turns out to be, that person "has to put forward a very clear, optimistic agenda for the future," he said. "And if you are going to deal with that subject, I think experience matters, showing a philosophy and keeping your word."
When asked whether any in the GOP field have adequate foreign policy experience, McCarthy pointed to the Democratic insurgent candidate.
"Well, we've got Bernie Sanders, who for his honeymoon went to the Soviet Union," he said. "I trust the American public to weigh every experience that somebody has to make decisions as the next president."
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