TV Host Calls Out Trump's Hypocrisy On Raising The Debt Ceiling
NBC's Chuck Todd tussles with Florida Republican on-air
Chuck Todd, host of the venerable NBC News Sunday politics program, Meet The Press, scuffled verbally on Sunday's broadcast with a Republican Florida congressman over Donald Trump's hypocrisy on raising the federal debt ceiling.
Todd's back-and-forth with Rep Byron Donalds aimed to show Trump's double standard when it came to raising the federal debt ceiling when he was president, compared to recent statements today when Joe Biden is in the Oval Office.
Biden and House Republicans presently are negotiating over an increase in the government's debt limit which is required by June 1 so as to avoid the government, for the first time, falling into default and triggering a wider economic crisis.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy and other House Republicans are arguing to raise the debt ceiling but only after Biden and Democrats acquiesce to deep cuts in federal spending.
However, Democrats and Republicans previously have raised the debt limit dozens of times without such political hostage-taking — including three times in just the four years Trump was president.
In fact, on his Sunday program, Todd played a clip from 2019 in which Trump said, “I can’t imagine anybody ever even thinking of using the debt ceiling as a negotiating wedge.”
However, during his recent CNN “town hall,” as once again running for president, Trump told McCarthy and other Republicans to allow default.
“I say to the Republicans out there — congressmen, senators — if they don’t give you massive cuts, you’re gonna have to do a default,” Trump said during that CNN appearance just weeks ago.
Todd pressed Donalds why, as a House Republican, didn't agree with Trump's 2019 statement.
“Well, first of all, he also said the other day on a rival network that he said that when he was president, and when they asked why he wasn’t saying it now, he said because he’s not president. Listen, Donald Trump is always negotiating — ” Donalds said before Todd interjected.
“Do you realize how absurd that sounds?” Todd asked.
Here's an excerpt of the rest of the interchange between Todd and Donalds:
DONALDS: “That is not absurd.”
TODD: “How is that not absurd? It's absurd.”
DONALDS: “He's always negotiating, Chuck. Chuck, he's always negotiating. That's what he does. And it's actually one of the reasons why so many deals for our country worked out to our benefit, as compared to his predecessors, both Republican and Democrat, because he's always negotiating.”
TODD: “But do you realize how partisan that sounds?”
DONALDS: “That is not a partisan statement.”
TODD: “'What is good for me is not for thee.’ He's basically saying, ‘When I'm president, there's no negotiating on this. But, hey, when somebody else is president, screw 'em.’”
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