CNBC anchor Joe Kernen was fed up with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse’s (D-RI) attempts to shift blame for the ongoing debt ceiling debacle in Congress.
Whitehouse tried to put the onus on House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) despite congressional Republicans’ passage of a $1.5 trillion debt ceiling increase coupled with $131 billion in spending cuts.
Whitehouse — who erroneously dubbed the bill a piece of “MAGA” legislation in a recent press release — accused McCarthy of “trying to avoid blame and responsibility but he is the only person in that meeting who is insisting that default remain a threat on the table.”
Kernen wasn’t buying any of it during the May 11 edition of Squawk Box: “[W]e kind of get tired of all the talking points.”
He continued: “You're calling it a MAGA bill that's a giveaway to the fossil fuel industry. But you've got 43 of your colleagues that happen to be in the other party in the GOP that have said that they're not going to vote for that clean senate bill, so you know you can't pass it so it's disingenuous to say [that].”
Whitehouse tried to interject: “Actually, that’s not true either.” But Kernen wouldn’t let up: "Then pass it. Can that bill pass right now? Can a clean debt bill [with no spending cuts] pass in the Senate right now, senator?” Whitehouse responded by repeating his wanton accusations against McCarthy: “ Not while the speaker is holding the economy hostage with his default program.” Kernen — apparently riled up — rebuked Whitehouse for doubling down: “The Speaker is in the House. He has nothing to do with the Senate!”
“Is Mitt Romney MAGA? Is this helpful? Do you think the American people are well served by this,” Kernen questioned in his cross-examination of Whitehouse’s excuses. “I think the American people would be well served -- you tell me when you're willing to have me speak,” fumbled Whitehouse in response.
Trying to make it seem like congressional Republicans are just dragging their feet on the debt ceiling even though a debt ceiling increase was passed seems to be the new strategy for the left.
In fact, Harvard Law School’s bonafide leftist professor Laurence Tribe used that argument to push for President Joe Biden to wield a nutty interpretation of the 14th Amendment to just ignore the debt ceiling law altogether and permit the Treasury Department to “borrow more than Congress has said it can.” Even Biden's Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen referred to that scheme as "'legally questionable.'"
Conservatives are under attack! Contact ABC News (818) 460-7477, CBS News (212) 975-3247 and NBC News (212) 664-6192 and demand they report the truth on the ongoing debt ceiling struggle in Congress.
