The Senate Minority Leader wrote President Biden a letter stating that Senate Majority Leader Schumer’s speech chastising Republicans had “poisoned the well,” and that Democrats would have to raise the debt ceiling on their own in the future through reconciliation.
McConnell said that Schumer’s “childish” behavior had alienated GOP Senators and even “some members” of his own party.
“Last night, in a bizarre spectacle, Senator Schumer exploded in a rant that was so partisan, angry, and corrosive that even Democratic Senators were visibly embarrassed by him and for him. This tantrum encapsulated and escalated a pattern of angry incompetence from Senator Schumer,” McConnell wrote.
McConnell was criticized by some of his own party members for “blinking” on a months-long denial and voting to give Democrats the opportunity to raise the debt ceiling until December.
McConnell told the caucus that part of the goal was to relieve the pressure on Democratic Senators Manchin and Sinema to abandon their support for the 60-vote majority and bust the filibuster.
“The reason the Republican leadership took the deal is because Democrats threatened … to nuke the filibuster. And nuking the filibuster would open the door to an even more radical agenda than what the Democrats are teeing up right now,” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told NBC News during the vote.
“I understand why leadership did that. I think it was a mistake,” he said. “Unfortunately, Republican leadership blinked in the face of the Democratic threat to nuke the filibuster.”
The Hill, Business Insider, and NBC