Democratic Senator Insists In Tense Interview Neither Party Wants to Wreck the American Economy: We Won’t ‘Shoot the Hostage’

Co-anchor of CNBC’s Squawk Box, Joe Kernen, pressed Sen. Chris Coons (D-DL) on Thursday over the ongoing negotiations to raise the debt ceiling in at times tense interview, in which Kernen insisted Democrats need to give up something to prevent a catastrophic default.

“Senator, Speaker McCarthy, as you know, he was able to pass a bill that raises the debt ceiling. At this point, it’s gone nowhere, as you know. And the president continues to insist on a clean raise. Senator Schumer hasn’t proposed any legislation to deal with the situation either,” Kernen began, laying out the state of play in Washington.

“Just for argument’s sake, if Speaker McCarthy does not accede to the president’s demands and the president continues to stick to his guns and refuses to negotiate, should we let the United States default on its debt? And do you really believe that that is the case –” Kernen continued.

“Absolutely not,” cut in Coons.

“Would the country blame Republicans if the president continues to refuse to negotiate? And is that really the wish that Republicans would get blamed?” Kernen asked.

“Well, of course, it is not anyone’s wish that we default. Joe, as you well know, and as the Council of Economic Advisers just announced, I guess yesterday, it would be catastrophic for us to have a sustained default,” Coons replied, adding:

It would weaken the United States globally. It would throw millions of people out of work. It would cut probably 40, 45% out of the stock market. It would throw us into a deep and sustained recession. Even if we had a brief default a few days, it could cost hundreds of thousands of jobs, turn all indicators down. This would be a self-inflicted wound. So, Joe, there is no reason for us to default.

“President Biden is meeting with all four leaders of Congress on Monday to talk about the path forward,” Coons added as he explained why spending cuts were a no-go for Democrats.

“I was watching some Senate leadership, GOP leadership the other day,” Kernen followed up. “Senator Thune said that in the last 11 debt ceiling raises, eight of them have had negotiations. And I’ve seen some articles written where Speaker Pelosi was demanding that the Trump administration negotiate to raise the debt ceiling. So eight out of 11, almost 70% of the time, there have been negotiations. So everybody on your side keeps bringing up what happened during the Trump administration. It’s not unprecedented. In fact, it’s more common that there are negotiations. But my simple question to you once again is if Speaker McCarthy does not accede to President Biden’s demands for a clean raise, is the president willing to let the country go in to default?”

“I don’t think either side is willing to shoot the hostage. And I’ll remind you, the hostage is us,” Coons replied.

Kernen cut him off, asking, “Then what’s it look like? What does it look like? Then it looks like negotiations are coming. And we’re just doing this kabuki dance to try to point fingers and brinkmanship and place blame on the nasty Democrats and nasty Republicans. And I don’t think the people really like watching this play out, Senator. I mean, we like sausage. We just don’t want to watch it be made.”

“Joe. It’s not fun to watch. It’s also not fun to be a part of it. It is deeply unsettling that we are just three weeks at this point from needing a clean debt ceiling raise bill to be moving through the Senate and the House. This is bringing it awfully close,” Coons added before continuing to lay out the dire consequences of a default.

“There must be something you can agree on at 32 trillion that we could modify to let both sides end up coming to an agreement where we raise the debt ceiling instead of the brinkmanship, where if you don’t do a clean raise, we’re going to default,” Kernen asked later in the conversation.

“Joe, I agree with you that we should be able to come to an agreement about the balance of cuts in spending, revenue and expenditures. That’s what our annual budget and appropriations process is for, when we can’t resolve that, the federal government shuts down,” Coons replied.

Kernen cut him off, insisting, “It wouldn’t kill you to talk about it now, senator, just to get things done, it would kill you. I mean, to throw a bone on spending, stop insisting on a clean raise. It’s just bringing us towards the brink.”

Watch the full clip above via CNBC.