Trump, Biden Camps Can’t Agree on Blame for Government Shutdown Turmoil: ‘They Created This Mess’ | Video
With just hours to go until the American government potentially shuts down, both our current president and the president-elect are in agreement on one thing: It’s not their fault.
Donald Trump and The White House took turns placing blame for the political malpractice on Friday, with Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre repeatedly putting the onus on House Speaker Mike Johnson for scrapping a bipartisan agreement as Trump faulted Joe Biden.
“If there is going to be a shutdown of government, let it begin now, under the Biden Administration, not after January 20th, under ‘TRUMP,'” Trump wrote on Truth Social early Friday morning. “This is a Biden problem to solve, but if Republicans can help solve it, they will!”
Meanwhile, Jean-Pierre’s press briefing got quite repetitive as she consistently answered all questions regarding the impending shutdown with the same soundbyte about the GOP, insisting, “They created this mess.”
“We have been here before, when we’re trying to avoid a government shutdown, and the president has had the same strategy — he knows how to work with Congress. In this instance, the Republicans blew this deal up. They did. They blew it up and they need to fix it,” she said. “This is not for the president to fix, this is not for us to fix, this is for Republicans in Congress to fix the mess that they created.”
“There is a bipartisan agreement, there’s a deal that was agreed upon and that’s what they need to move forward with — and when I say ‘They,’ I mean the Republicans in Congress,” Jean-Pierre added at another point. “That’s what they said they would move forward with, the Speaker said that, and he’s not holding up his side of the bargain.”
“Congressional Republicans made their decision because of what the president-elect said — at the direction of the president-elect and Elon Musk,” she continued. “There was a bipartisan deal on the table. They were moving forward, the Speaker agreed to do this, to move forward with the bipartisan deal and they stopped that because of what the president-elect said and what Elon Musk said. They wanted to clear a way for their billionaire friends. A tax cut, $5 trillion to the national debt with tax cuts for billionaires. So, that’s the reality.”
While successfully acknowledging the billionaire class’ role in things, the press secretary did, however, dodge questions on why Biden is not publicly addressing the situation himself, reiterating that she is his voice in The White House.
The back and forth came after Trump discussed the topic of dealmaking late Thursday night on social media, writing, “Congress must get rid of, or extend out to, perhaps, 2029, the ridiculous Debt Ceiling. Without this, we should never make a deal. Remember, the pressure is on whoever is President.”
The government is set to shut down when federal funding runs out on Saturday at 12:01 a.m. EST, unless Congress can come up with a plan in the next 10 hours.
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