As the June 1 deadline for raising the debt ceiling approaches, NBC News’ Chuck Todd criticizes Republican Congressman Byron Donalds for defending Donald Trump’s flip-flopping on whether debt negotiations should be held to advance a partisan agenda. should be used as a method.
During Sunday’s “Meet the Press,” Todd asked Donalds to respond to a 2019 clip of the former president saying he “could never imagine the debt ceiling being used as a negotiating wedge.” thinking about doing as,” specifically prompting the representative from Florida to explain why she disagrees with Trump on the matter.
Before getting down to business on the issue, Donalds said that despite Trump’s comments several years ago, the former president also recently mentioned this when asked why he was contradicting what he was saying now. , he explained, citing his pivot “because he’s not the president,” at last week’s CNN town hall moderated by Kaitlyn Collins.
“Do you realize how absurd this sounds?” Todd interjected to ask Donalds, who quickly shot back “It’s not absurd.”
Todd asked again, “How is this not absurd?” and affirmed “It’s absurd,” before The Donald proceeded to endorse the former president’s whim.
“He’s always negotiating, Chuck. That’s what he does,” Donalds said. “It’s really one of the reasons why so many deals for our country work to our advantage compared to his predecessors, both Republican and Democrat. do, because he’s always talking.”
Donald’s defense apparently didn’t do the trick for Todd as he pushed the Florida representative to once again look at why Trump’s back-and-forth statements are problematic, “but do you realize how partisan it sounds Is?”
“He’s basically saying, ‘When I’m president, there’s no negotiating it, but hey, when someone else is president, screw them,'” Todd said.
Donalds had his last shot at defending Trump, who is gearing up to go head-to-head with Ron DeSantis, the 2024 Republican presidential nominee, noting that the “environment” regarding the debt ceiling is “very different” at the moment. It was very different than. conversation of the year.
“Let’s be realistic now, when Donald Trump was negotiating the debt ceiling with Nancy Pelosi, mind you, they negotiated —” Donalds said, but Todd cut short to disapprove of the statement, saying the administration “without any Extended the limits of the ban. Donalds finished his thought.
“While they were doing this, our economy was booming, our debt levels weren’t where they are now … We weren’t running massive deficits the way we are now, it was a very It was just a different environment,” Donalds continued. “Now you have $32 trillion on credit cards and all the House Republicans are saying ‘let’s go back to pre-pandemic spending,’ — it’s common sense stuff.”
