Kevin McCarthy Sputters on Claim Trump Put People Before Politics After Chuck Todd’s Three Word Response
When House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) tried to claim that Donald Trump “put the American people before politics” by ending the Trump shutdown on Friday, Meet the Press host Chuck Todd shut him down with three simple words.
On Sunday’s edition of NBC News’ Meet the Press, Todd pointed out that Trump ended the shutdown worse off than he began it.
“On day one of the shutdown, the president had a deal in front of him that was essentially a continuing resolution for three weeks, no wall. That’s the deal he agreed to on day 35,” Todd said. “What was accomplished?”
McCarthy complained about Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi for not making a deal on Trump’s border wall, and said “I give President Trump a lot of credit. He put the American people before politics…
“After 35 days,” Todd interrupted.
“No, he did…” McCarthy began, before he was cut off again.
“For 35 days, though, what did he get?” Todd asked.
“Well, I’m not celebrating getting something,” McCarthy conceded, and again complained, falsely, that Pelosi wouldn’t negotiate “about anything.”
Later in the interview, McCarthy tried to claim that Trump “did not shut down the government, and said that Trump “made four different offers that were reasonable.”
“Not until after he shut down the government,” Todd pointed out.
“He didn’t shut it down,” McCarthy said.
“He’s the one that said he’d be proud to own it. Who else did it?” Todd asked. “He rejected the Senate bill to keep the government open.”
McCarthy replied that “Like every other piece of legislation, it takes 60 votes in the Senate. Republicans don’t have 60 in the Senate. So I think it would only be fair, Chuck, to understand that, if it takes 60 votes in the Senate, there’s probably blame on both sides.”
But the Senate voted in favor of a clean bill with no wall funding by a 52-44 margin, and it was Republicans, not Democrats, who filibustered that bill. The Trump-backed version, with wall funding, only managed to get 51 votes.
Watch the clip above, via NBC News.
[Featured image via screengrab]
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