\n<\/p>\n
Speaker\u00a0Kevin McCarthy<\/strong>\u00a0and his lieutenants in House leadership took a makeshift stage in a courtyard at the Orlando, Florida Ritz-Carlton to open up what was intended to be a conference of ideas; House Republicans had come together in the Sunshine State to build the party\u2019s agenda and tout Republican successes. McCarthy, who had shed his typical Capitol Hill uniform in favor of a more casual look\u2014more fitting for a day on the links than the Beltway\u2014ticked through a smorgasbord of conservative talking points. \u201cWe\u2019ve already accomplished quite a bit that we promised the American public,\u201d he said to a gathering of reporters.<\/p>\n \u201cWe wanted to come out strong, bringing a good bold conservative agenda to the House floor that addresses problems that families are facing all across America,\u201d\u00a0Steve Scalise,<\/strong> the House Majority Leader, echoed. Notably absent from the group\u2019s prepared remarks was mention of\u00a0Donald Trump,<\/strong> who, now living a couple of hours south of Orlando at Mar-a-Lago, had spent the weekend posting his way through the very real possibility that any day now he may be criminally charged. Namely, the former president and current third-time presidential candidate had called on his followers to protest should he be arrested as the result of Manhattan DA\u00a0Alvin Bragg<\/strong>\u2019s investigation into his hush money payments to\u00a0adult-film actress\u00a0Stormy Daniels.<\/strong> \u201cPROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!\u201d Trump wrote on Truth Social, in a post that instantly upended House Republican leadership\u2019s planned agenda for the week.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think people should protest this,\u201d McCarthy said, responding to a reporter\u2019s question on Trump\u2019s most recent social media musings. There was an easy parallel to Trump\u2019s rhetoric ahead of the January 6, 2021 riot, reporters reminded House Republican leadership, which sought to downplay the former president\u2019s language. Trump\u2019s comments, McCarthy said, were being misinterpreted. \u201cHe\u2019s not talking in a harmful way \u2026 Nobody should harm one another.\u201d He added later, \u201cI think I’ve been very clear that I do not believe there should be any violence.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n It could have been 2017, or 2018, or really any year since Trump\u2019s political ascension in 2016. Seemingly every Republican policy negotiation in the intervening years has been disrupted by the latest Trump tweet, or overshadowed by his impeachment and the January 6 attack on the Capitol. This time Trump isn\u2019t president, and he\u2019s not on Twitter\u2014he posts on Truth Social\u2014yet he remains omnipresent in a party that has adopted his political style, and whose agenda has largely been consumed by his political grievances (see: Representative\u00a0Jim Jordan<\/strong>\u2019s committee on the \u201cweaponization of the federal government\u201d).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n At events open to the press at the retreat, the topic of a possible Trump indictment was front and center; it eclipsed any other agenda item, from GOP talking points on inflation, China,\u00a0Joe Biden<\/strong>\u2019s policies, and the debt ceiling. So salient was the topic that in the bilingual press conference,\u00a0Mario Diaz-Balart<\/strong>\u00a0had to repeat his opinion on the matter twice\u2014in English and in Spanish. \u201cHere we have a DA that is used to taking felonies and reducing them to misdemeanors. And then we have a noncrime being elevated. So yeah, it seems to be very, very political\u2026 All of that is very suspect,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n