Kevin McCarthy Says Americans Should Not Protest in the Event of a Trump Arrest: 'We Want Calmness'

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Kevin McCarthy

Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is urging "calmness" in the event of an arrest of former president Donald Trump, saying: "Nobody should harm one another ... We want calmness out there."

During a House Republican retreat in Orlando, McCarthy told reporters "I don't think people should protest this, no. And I think President Trump, if you talk to him, he doesn't believe that, either," NBC News reports.

Trump has urged exactly the opposite, however, taking to his social media site Truth Social over the weekend to urge his supporters specifically to protest if he is arrested.

Trump, 76, wrote that "illegal leaks" indicate that "the far & away leading Republican candidate & former president of the United States of America, will be arrested on Tuesday of next week," referring to himself.

"Protest, take our nation back," the politician continued, in part.

RELATED: Donald Trump Says He Expects to Be Arrested on Tuesday After Reports Say Indictment Is Imminent

In his post, Trump referenced reports from various outlets, including the Associated Press and CBS, that he could soon face possible criminal charges in New York relating to an alleged hush money payment that was made to adult film star Stormy Daniels while he was the presidential candidate in 2016.

Trump has denied any wrongdoing and called the investigation, which is being led by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office, a "witch hunt," per NBC News. He's also accused Bragg of being a "racist," the outlet added.

Joe Raedle/Getty Images Donald Trump

Trump's lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, previously spoke with CNBC and said that Trump will surrender to face criminal charges, should he be indicted.

"[He] will follow normal procedures if it gets to that point," Tacopina told the outlet on Friday.

Already, government buildings are gearing up for potential protests, with the NYPD seen erecting barricades on Monday outside both Trump Tower and the Manhattan Criminal Court.

Meanwhile, Axios reports that Bragg "reassured staff in a memo Saturday that efforts to intimidate them or threaten the rule of law will not be tolerated."

McCarthy has ordered a probe of Bragg's investigation and called it "an outrageous abuse of power."

The investigation stems from Trump's alleged affair with Daniels, which surfaced in 2018, when the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump arranged a $130,000 payment to the ex adult-film star a month before the 2016 election so she'd keep quiet about an alleged sexual encounter they'd had years earlier.

While Trump and his longtime lawyer Michael Cohen initially denied the claims of an affair, Cohen later admitted that there was a payment made to the porn star.

Calling it "a private transaction," Cohen told The New York Times that he paid Daniels $130,000 out of his own pocket in 2016. He said Trump had not reimbursed him.

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Trump has since admitted he authorized the $130,000 payment, but has continued to deny the underlying claims that the two had an affair or that the payment was in any way connected to his campaign.

In a 2018 statement, the U.S. Attorney's Office in New York said the publisher of The National Enquirer has "admitted that it made the $150,000 payment in concert with a candidate's presidential campaign, and in order to ensure that the woman did not publicize damaging allegations about the candidate" and that "its principal purpose in making the payment was to suppress the woman's story so as to prevent it from influencing the election."