McCarthy: No Secret Deal to Expunge Trump Impeachments

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Thursday said he supports expunging former President Donald Trump’s two indictments but denied a report that he’d made a secret deal to make that happen.

“There’s no deal, but I’ve been very clear, from long before, when I voted against impeachments that they did it for purely political purposes,” the California Republican told NBC News Correspondent Ryan Nobles. “I support expungement but there’s no deal out there.”

His comments came in response to a Politico report earlier in the day that claimed McCarthy had promised Trump that the House would vote on expunging the impeachments.

The alleged promise came, Politico said, after the speaker angered the former president in June when he said that Trump may not be the GOP’s best 2024 presidential nominee.

Politico, quoting a source said to be close to Trump, reported that to placate him, McCarthy promised that the House would vote to expunge the impeachments before the August recess.

Meanwhile, House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., joined together in late June on a resolution to clear Trump of the impeachment charges.

During a recent House leadership meeting, moderate Republicans argued against the resolution, saying that an expungement vote would endanger votes for GOP incumbents seeking reelections in Biden-won districts.

It is not clear if an expungement vote would pass, if one comes up, as two sitting Republicans, Reps. Dan Newhouse of Washington and David Valadao of California, both voted to impeach Trump.

One unnamed senior Republican told Politico that while Trump is supported, a vote to expunge the impeachments would reveal the party’s divisions and would embarrass Trump if the vote failed.

“I’m for Trump,” the lawmaker said. “The problem is: If you have an expungement, and it goes to the floor and fails — which it probably will — then the media will treat it like it’s a third impeachment, and it will show disunity among Republican ranks. It’s a huge strategic risk.”