Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told “The Story” that while President Biden’s State of the Union address is expected to attack the GOP, particularly “MAGA Republicans,” on issues like the debt ceiling, the president A good conversation should recall your history. Faith as a senator.
McConnell spoke to Fox News anchor Martha McCallum on Tuesday in his only televised interview ahead of Biden’s State of the Union address. McCallum described how House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., wants spending cuts in exchange for figures on the negotiated debt ceiling.
McConnell recalled how former President Barack Obama appointed then-Vice President Biden as the administration’s liaison to the then-Republican-led Senate.
“Actually, Joe Biden and I did this in 2011. He was assigned by the president to deal with me as the leader of my party in the Senate. We negotiated the Budget Control Act, which actually cut spending two years in a row. The first time since the Korean War,” McConnell said.
Pompeo calls Trump allegation ‘deeply dangerous’ Pentagon didn’t notify White House of Chinese balloons
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. (Fox News)
“So the president knows he has a history of negotiating the debt ceiling himself. So I think what the speaker is asking him to do is unreasonable and certainly within precedent.”
However, Biden has not shown much willingness to negotiate recently. He moved to Springfield, Va. I made clear during an event that he would “veto everything they (Republicans) send.”
Regarding the Chinese surveillance dirigible that first floated over the Aleutian Islands and later the Lower 48, McCallum cited a Wall Street Journal editorial that questioned how the Pentagon’s $850 billion budget could finance another spy balloon. Could not find out.
“Look, I’m one of the Gang of Eight – one of the eight people who are entitled to know practically everything in the field of intelligence,” McConnell replied. “I never heard anything about it. And regardless of what we knew about it in the past, let’s just focus on what happened last week.”
China wants back the downed spy planes.
The White House said on Friday that President Joe Biden would not shoot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon, despite demands from lawmakers and others. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images/Larry Mayer/The Billings Gazette via AP/Keith Soji/Getty Images)
McConnell, echoing other critics of the administration, questioned how there was no safe way to bring down Alaska’s upper reaches or the vast open spaces of the Great Plains. Other critics noted that Biden could have forced the Canadian government to take joint action when the balloon was over the Yukon.
“We have a lot of questions because not only did you not know why this happened in the past, but why did you treat him like this?” McConnell said.
“It was like there was a poll this morning that said only 13% of Americans think the State of the Union is strong. That’s the kind of weak response that comes with things like the withdrawal from Afghanistan with this disorganization. The way we did it in 2021. That would give the impression to the American people that the country is not doing well.”
In remarks on the Senate floor, McConnell remarked that under Biden, “the State of our Union is apparently under Chinese surveillance from our own skies.”
Carolyn Long of Fox News contributed to this report..
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