Former President Donald Trump is ripping Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) for offering a temporary extension of the debt ceiling after arguing that Democrats should go it alone.
In a statement on Wednesday, Trump said, “Looks like Mitch McConnell is folding to the Democrats, again.”
He added, “He’s got all of the cards with the debt ceiling, it’s time to play the hand. Don’t let them destroy our Country!”
Read the statement below:
NEW!
— Liz Harrington (@realLizUSA) October 6, 2021
"Looks like Mitch McConnell is folding to the Democrats, again. He’s got all of the cards with the debt ceiling, it’s time to play the hand. Don’t let them destroy our Country!" – President Donald J. Trump pic.twitter.com/YfDejLfade
On Monday, McConnell told President Joe Biden that Republicans believe “since your party wishes to govern alone, it must handle the debt limit alone as well.”
However, on Wednesday, McConnell said in a statement that Senate Republicans would “allow Democrats to use normal procedures to pass an emergency debt limit extension” through December to “protect the American people from a near-term Democrat-created crisis.”
After blasting the Democrats for not moving earlier to use the budget reconciliation process to raise the debt ceiling, the Kentucky senator said his offer will “moot Democrats’ excuses about the time crunch they created and give the unified Democratic government more than enough time to pass standalone debt limit legislation through reconciliation.”
While McConnell cast his statement as a way to “save” Americans and give his colleagues more time to craft a reconciliation bill and increase the debt ceiling without Republican votes, Democrats are claiming victory.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) claimed the minority leader “caved.”
Prior to McConnell’s offer, some Democrats were discussing making changes to the filibuster to pass an increase of the debt ceiling, the amount of money the U.S. can borrow to meet its existing obligations, and avoid defaulting on its debt which Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says would yield “catastrophic” results.
The filibuster is a procedural hurdle used to delay or block legislation and means that most bills need at least 60 votes to pass the chamber. In the Senate, which is divided 50-50, Democrats would need at least 10 Republicans to vote for legislation for it to pass.
Senate Republicans previously signaled that they would not provide at least 10 votes to lift the debt ceiling. They argue that Democrats should use the budget reconciliation process, which would let them pass a debt ceiling increase with just 51 votes.
Biden said on Tuesday that it is a “real possibility” that Senate Democrats could make a change to the filibuster rules to raise the debt limit, as IJR reported.
CNN’s Manu Raju reports that McConnell decided to offer a short-term extension of the debt ceiling because he was concerned about the pressure facing Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) to make a change to the filibuster.
Democrats appeared to be leaning toward accepting McConnell’s offer.
While he still insisted that Democrats vote by themselves to raise the debt ceiling in December, he also said Republicans might engage in a “traditional bipartisan governing conversation” if Democrats “abandon their efforts to ram through another historically reckless taxing and spending spree.”
In September, Trump said Republicans would be “foolish and unpatriotic” not to use the debt ceiling negotiation to force Democrats to “concede all of the horror they are trying to inflict upon the future of the United States.”
