'You don’t have anything to say': GOP candidate for Santos’ seat squirms when asked about Trump support

After former Rep. George Santos (R-New York) became just the sixth member of the House of Representatives to be expelled from the body by his colleagues in US history, nearly two dozen candidates have already lined up to replace him in what's likely to be a close special election in the swing district.

One of the candidates running in the crowded Republican primary for New York's 3rd Congressional District is Kellen Curry, a 37-year-old Air Force veteran and former vice president at JPMorgan. CNN's Jake Tapper noted that while Curry has made statements about George Santos in the wake of his federal indictment, he hasn't weighed in on former President Donald Trump, who is facing 91 felony counts in three separate jurisdictions. Curry declined to give a direct answer, and only said "the American people will decide the presidential race."

That wasn't a good enough answer for Tapper.

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"You can't not give me an opinion on the most popular Republican in the Republican Party right now, the leading Republican presidential candidate," Tapper said. "If you don't think George Santos deserves to be in Congress, you must have an opinion of whether Donald Trump is fit to be in the White House."

Curry: "At the end of the day, the American people are gonna decide—"

Tapper: "—No, but I'm asking you what you think. What you think."

"Jake, we are, we are in a vigorous debate right now," Curry said, as he started to visibly sweat. "There's not just Donald Trump, there's Nikki Haley, there's Ron DeSantis—"

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"Well who do you like?" Tapper interjected.

"Right now they're duking it out over who's going to be the standard-bearer of the party and so we'll see how it shakes out," Curry replied.

"Yeah, but who do you like? You must have a preference. There are a lot of candidates in the race. Who do you like?"

"Absolutely," Curry said. "I'm gonna support the Republican nominee at the end of the day, uh I like—"

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"—It's not the end of the day! It's only 4:23. Who do you like?" Tapper said.

"At the end of the day Jake, it's—"

"Again, it's not — it's not the end of the day. It's 4:23," Tapper continued. "Who do you like right now? Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy, Donald Trump, Chris Christie, who's just from across the river? I mean, you must like one of these guys."

"Here's what I like, Jake, I like the process. I like the fact that we're having a vigorous debate right now about who's going to be the standard-bearer," Curry said. "And I look forward to seeing that debate play itself out. We're gonna have debates, Iowa's coming up, New Hampshire's coming up, and so we'll see. I don't think we should get ahead of the process. I think we should allow it to play out. I think we should allow voters to weigh in, you know folks don't like being told what to do or what to think, and so we'll see where it goes from here."

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"Well Kellen, with all due respect, you had a lot to say about George Santos. He's now gone," Tapper said. "And George Santos, who certainly had a lot of embarrassing things that he did, said, was accused of and charged with, is a piker compared to Donald Trump. And yet you don't have anything to say about him."

"Well Jake, I know what you're trying to do here," Curry said.

"—I'm not trying to do anything," Tapper responded.

Tapper is right in that Curry has been tight-lipped about Trump. His X (formerly Twitter) account, which was launched in March of 2023, has mentioned the former president zero times according to an advanced search. However, he has mentioned Santos numerous times, and even stated in a press release posted to his account in May that he was "deeply concerned by the serious criminal charges" filed against Santos.

Watch the full interview below or by clicking this link.