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Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate, sought to get out of a corner on Friday by issuing an angry letter in which he blamed Democrats for the deadlock on the debt ceiling he broke by ending a refusal to cooperate he had said was absolute.
In the letter to Joe Biden, McConnell complained about a speech in which Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer attacked Republicans for their behavior.
Lamenting Schumer’s lack of civility – which sparked scenes of anger in the Senate – McConnell hurled a series of insults at his counterpart.
“Last night,” the Minority Leader wrote on Friday night, “in a bizarre spectacle, Senator Schumer exploded into a rant so partisan, angry and corrosive that even Democratic senators were visibly embarrassed by him and for him.
“This tantrum summed up and intensified an angry pattern of incompetence on Senator Schumer’s part… this childish behavior only further alienated the Republican members who helped facilitate this patch in the short term. It poisoned the well even more.
Democrats argue that it was McConnell who poisoned the well by refusing to cooperate with raising the debt ceiling, a step they have repeatedly taken with Donald Trump in power. Experts say a US default would be catastrophic for the global economy.
McConnell insisted: “In light of Senator Schumer’s hysteria and my grave concerns about how another partisan, reckless and reckless spending bill might harm Americans and help China, I will not participate in no future effort to mitigate the consequences of Democratic mismanagement. . “
McConnell also spoke to Biden, media reported.
The Kentuckian made his decision a day after he and 10 other Republicans gave decisive support for an increase in the federal debt limit by $ 480 billion, enough to last two months. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen had said without such a hike, the United States would default on its debts by mid-October.
Some Republicans have criticized McConnell for not holding on any longer, which they say sharpened their claim that a multibillion-dollar bundle of Biden’s domestic spending priorities, currently pending in Congress, is a waste and damage.
Trump, who remains influential in the party and will host a rally in Iowa on Saturday, was among those who lambasted McConnell for what Lindsey Graham of South Carolina called his “complete surrender.”
In his speech, Schumer praised Democrats for overcoming a “Republicans-made crisis.” Despite overwhelming opposition from Chief McConnell and members of his conference, our caucus held firm and we pulled our country off the edge of the cliff that the Republicans tried to push us on ”.
As Schumer spoke, West Virginia’s Joe Manchin, a key centrist Democrat, was seen burying his head in his hands. Among Republicans angered by Schumer’s lack of courtesy and politeness was Mitt Romney of Utah – who had voted against increasing the debt ceiling.
Romney told reporters, “There is a time to be gracious and there is a time to be combative, and it was a time for grace.
John Thune of South Dakota, a member of the Republican leadership who voted with McConnell, said Schumer was “totally irrelevant.” Of his own confrontation with the New Yorker, he said: “I let him have it.”
But Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, tweeted: “Some of my fellow Republicans didn’t like that Schumer called them… just unreal that they thought they deserved applause for wooing economic disaster and then, at the very last minute, delivering the absolute minimum number of voice to avoid it. “
One way for Democrats to raise the debt limit on their own would be to protect debt legislation from obstructions, delays that mean 60 votes are needed in the Senate to 50-50.
Two key Democrats, Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, oppose it, as they opposed ending the filibuster to protect Biden’s voting rights or political priorities. Republicans said a factor in McConnell’s provision of the two-month debt lifeline was fear that Manchin and Sinema might support ending obstructions on debt law.
Democrats accused McConnell of creating a crisis because of an estimated $ 28 billion in debt that covers spending already approved, including about $ 7 billion under Trump.
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