Biden Pushes Back On Claims He Was Dodging McCarthy: ‘I’m Available to Whomever Wants to Talk’

President Joe Biden pushed back Wednesday on accusations he avoided working with then-House Speaker Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) on important issues requiring bipartisan cooperation.

When meeting with reporters at the White House Wednesday, Biden was asked, “Then-Speaker McCarthy said the two of you hadn’t spoken directly in a long time. Why is that, and are you committed to engaging more regularly with the next House Speaker?”

“We had two agreements we shook hands on,” Biden answered. “And I assumed he was working with the — I know he was working with the Democrats in the House and Senate. It wasn’t for me to do anything. If he wanted to talk to me, I was available. I’m available to whomever wants to talk to me, but the idea that I was going to somehow convince McCarthy to change his view was not reasonable.”

Since becoming speaker in January by making major concessions to MAGA Republicans, McCarthy has been criticized for refusing to cooperate with Democrats on issues such as Ukraine spending and closing the southern border. In addition, he announced an impeachment inquiry into President Biden last month over business dealings with son, Hunter, and blamed Biden for causing the budget crisis.

McCarthy was forced to rely on Democrats, however, to help pass a stop-gap spending measure Biden signed late Saturday night, narrowly avoiding a government shutdown. Despite this, McCarthy publicly denounced the Democrats on CBS’ Face The Nation Sunday, accusing  them of trying “to do everything they can” to keep the spending bill from passing.

Video of the interview was reportedly played at Tuesday’s Democratic Caucus meeting and may have sealed McCarthy’s fate as Democratic leadership decided not to try to prevent Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) from leading the charge to oust the speaker.

Watch the clip above via MSNBC.