This was so very predictable. When Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-California) appeared Friday evening on Fox News, near the close of the interview, there was a “zinger” question from the host, and McCarthy was ready with the kind of answer we’ve come to expect from GOP leadership. Well, mostly.

The current House minority leader was asked about President Donald Trump’s entertaining the possibility of Trump making a run at the speaker role after the 2022 midterm elections, according to Mediaite. As readers well know, that’s the exact position McCarthy would love to have, if the chips fall the right way and the Republicans retake the House.

Anyway, the exchange between host Brian Kilmeade and McCarthy appears to have caused a stir among the legacy, leftist (but I repeat myself) media. But, honestly, it shouldn’t. Hold tight — I’ll get to that later.

Here’s the key part that has the left — and their trolls who love to attack such drivel — chattering away on social media:

KILMEADE: "Would you be for President Trump becoming speaker?"

MCCARTHY: "You know, I've talked to President Trump many times. He tells me he wants to be speaker. And I think he should be president."

— Ryan Struyk (@ryanstruyk) June 19, 2021

KILMEADE: “Would you be for President Trump becoming speaker?”

MCCARTHY: “You know, I’ve talked to President Trump many times. He tells me he wants to be speaker. And I think he should be president.”

Mediaite’s reporting also notes that Kilmeade dug in (likely in a tongue-in-cheek way) at the very end:

Kilmeade concluded the interview by saying, “All right, Leader McCarthy, it could be Speaker McCarthy, it might be Speaker Trump. We’ll have to find out.”

NBC News and MSNBC analyst Jake Sherman had this “insightful” take on the top Republican in the House speaking about Trump — he was “surprised”:

This is the first time I’ve heard someone acknowledge the idea that trump wants to become speaker. I’m very surprised McCarthy has acknowledged this publicly. https://t.co/vKOquR8N7X

— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) June 19, 2021

Which is at minimum naïve, but more likely disingenuous. McCarthy had to comment on what the former President of the United States has been talking about; as you might have noticed, that’s all any legacy media outlet wants to talk about ad nauseum. Even all these months after the election, months past the Biden inauguration, and way past the first 100 days — Donald Trump continues to live rent-free in these people’s heads. And who can blame them, really? He’s good for ratings.

I can’t let this story go without a note on McCarthy and others of his ilk in the GOP. Yeah, this is the kind of answer you have to expect from Swamp Dwellers like him. And okay, let’s give him a half-point of credit for saying he wants Trump to be president in 2024. Not “Trump told his raging mob of followers to commit an insurrection, and he’s unfit to hold office ever again.”

But, really, the better, and I would argue, smarter answer to this is no answer at all. I know, I know — I’m beating a dead horse here, but I have to ask: why even acknowledge the baiting questions on TV shows? It does no one in the Republican caucus any favors, and leads to nothingburger stories like this one from Mediate, Yahoo! News, et cetera. It gives them a narrative to beat you upside the head with.

The truth? There is no controversy to be found in anything McCarthy said here — but the truth has never stopped the media from trying to twist something as innocuous as this into one. Don’t forget that.

HT: Townhall.com