‘Very Frustrated’: Republican Senator Irked Trump’s Team Didn’t ‘Engage Sooner’ on Bipartisan Funding Deal It Killed
Republican Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND) voiced his frustration at President-elect Donald Trump’s last-minute killing of the bipartisan funding proposal to avoid a government shutdown on Wednesday.
“Are you frustrated?” CNN’s Manu Raju asked Cramer.
“I’m very frustrated. Can you tell? But I’m frustrated with a smile,” Cramer replied.
“I mean, are you frustrated with the president or the president-elect?” Raju pressed.
“I’m frustrated with his team to not have engaged sooner than this,” Cramer noted.
“Trump should have made his demands out earlier?” followed up Raju.
“Well, that would have been very helpful. Yeah. I mean, maybe he hadn’t thought about it until just today, but yeah, that would have been very helpful,” responded Cramer.
“Is it realistic to raise the national debt limit in two days?” Raju asked, referring to Trump’s latest demand.
“I would not think so. I would not think so. But, you know, it’s almost Christmas. It’s amazing what people might do to get home,” Cramer said.
Raju then rejoined anchor Kaitlan Collins and summed up the state of play on Capitol Hill:
And there are a lot of Republicans that just simply say that it is totally unrealistic to raise the national debt limit. At this point, remember, the debt limit is a hit, actually the beginning of next year. But the Treasury Department can use what’s called extraordinary measures to avoid the first-ever debt default probably until the middle of next year.
So Donald Trump would have had to deal with it at the beginning of his term. He’s wants Congress to deal with it now to take it off his plate. That is just such a highly uncertain, complicated demand at this late hour, which is why there’s so much concern right now, came out of a possible government shutdown, an extended government shutdown, and uncertain how they’d get out of it.
Fox News’s Chad Pergram also reported on the frustration on Capitol Hill among Republicans on Thursday. “Fox is told House Republicans are inching close to “something” on a CR. But details are unclear. It’s something Johnson and others have been processing with VP-elect Vance,” Pergram wrote on X, adding:
No one would call this an “agreement.” And they have no idea how quickly they can socialize it with the conference.
It’s is unclear if this could just be a patch to avoid a government shutdown – or if it could be something more substantive with the debt ceiling, and/or disaster aid.
Fox spoke to one moderate Republican who was upset that “outside forces” like Elon Musk torched the package and were “meddling in Congressional affairs.”
That is not exactly an endorsement of DOGE. But there is significant enmity now among some House Republicans for Musk.
Watch above via CNN.
