Global Courant 2023-05-21 23:02:20
As the June 1 deadline to raise the debt ceiling approaches, NBC News’ Chuck Todd slammed Republican Congressman Byron Donalds for defending Donald Trump’s flip-flopping over whether debt negotiations should be used as a way to push partisan agendas.
During Sunday’s “Meet the Press,” Todd asked Donalds to respond to a clip of the former president saying in 2019 that he “can’t imagine anyone ever thinking of using the debt ceiling as a bargaining wedge” , specifically prompting the Florida representative to explain why he disagrees with Trump in this case.
Before getting started, Donalds noted that despite Trump’s comments from several years ago, the former president also recently stated when asked why he now contradicted what he said then stated that his pivot was “because he’s not president,” referring to last week’s CNN town hall led by Kaitlan Collins.
“Do you realize how absurd that sounds?” Todd stepped in to ask Donalds, who quickly shot back, “That’s not absurd.”
Todd interjected again to ask, “Why isn’t that absurd?” and affirmed “it’s absurd,” before Donalds unequivocally supported the former president’s whims.
“He’s always negotiating, Chuck. That’s what he does,” Donalds said. “It’s actually one of the reasons why so many deals for our country have worked out in our favor compared to its predecessors, both Republican and Democrat, because he’s always negotiating.”
Donalds’ defense clearly didn’t work for Todd, as he once again urged the Florida representative to see why Trump’s back-and-forth statements are problematic, asking “but do you realize how partisan that sounds?”
“He’s basically saying, ‘If I’m president, it’s non-negotiable, but hey, if someone else is president, leave them alone,'” Todd said.
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Donalds had his last chance to defend Trump, who is gearing up to run against Ron DeSantis for the 2024 presidential Republican nominee spot, noting that the “environment” regarding the debt ceiling was very different at the time then now. years of negotiations.
“Let’s be realistic now, when Donald Trump negotiated the debt ceiling with Nancy Pelosi, mind you, they negotiated that –” Donalds said, but Todd interrupted the statement, noting that the administration raised the ceiling “without any restraint” before letting Donalds finish his thought.
“When they did, our economy was booming, our debt levels weren’t where they are today…we didn’t have huge deficits like we have now, it was a very different environment,” continued Donalds. “Now you have $32 trillion on the credit card and all the House Republicans are saying, ‘let’s go back to pre-pandemic spending’ — that’s common sense.”
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