After Speaker McCarthy complained about his White House meeting with the President, Biden called out McCarthy’s lies.
McCarthy complained after his meeting with Biden at the White House, “I didn’t see any new movement. President said the staff should get back together. But I was very clear with the president. We have now just two weeks to go. Chuck Schumer could pass something we’d go to conference right away and solve that, But I don’t think Chuck Schumer can pass anything. They haven’t dealt with it. Unfortunately, the President has waited 97 days without ever meeting. Every day. I ask, could we meet and he said no.”
Video of Biden:
Biden responded to McCarthy at the White House:
Look, now, I know the speaker says, well, I’m not — he uses the L word, but says I’m not telling the truth. All I ask was if you’re not going to cut any of those programs and you’re saying the cut is 22% across the board, then you’re going to have to cut a hell of a lot more with the programs that are left. We’re not going to do that either.
I’m not sure. I don’t think they’re sure exactly what they’re proposing and takes cuts in defense off the table, the cuts they have to make to other programs will be even deeper than that.
And one last thing that’s very important. The speaker is saying he’s been trying to get me to sit down with him for 97 days. 97 days ago we did meet in my office. I said to him at the time, I’m happy to talk with you. You submit your budget, I’ll submit mine, and we’ll talk about it. And I don’t want to get any press person, point anybody out, but I think you all remember my saying that. I submitted my budget on March the 9th in detail. He passed his plan I think in the last or second to last week in April. Five days later, after he finally put forward something, I called on him to invite him to a meeting with the other leading members of Congress.
Take a look at the responses of the President and the Speaker and ask yourself who does it seem like the pressure is getting to?
Kevin McCarthy knows that if he cuts a deal with Biden on the debt limit, his career could be over. If the far-right in the House doesn’t like the deal, they could move to remove McCarthy as speaker. If McCarthy tries to play hardball with Biden, he could plunge the country into default and wreck the global economy.
Speaker McCarthy is in a much worse position than the President. Biden understands this, which is why he is not going to let any lies go unchallenged and continue to turn up the pressure on McCarthy.