President Donald Trump’s move to side with Democrats on the debt ceiling this week may have some Republicans “freaked out,” but not Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC).
“I don’t get freaked out much about anything,” Meadows said on MSNBC Friday. “Right now I think this is more of a one-off than a trend that we’re going to be looking at going forward.”
Meadows’ remarks come after the President met with Democratic and Republican congressional leaders Wednesday and opted to side with Democrats’ proposal to increase the debt ceiling for three months rather than the longer-term increase that Republicans were pushing for.
Meadows said the move does put him in a “negotiating disadvantage,” but the President made that decision because he “wasn’t given a whole lot of options.”
“Here’s the thing, because of the hurricane relief there wasn’t a whole lot of options when you look at this you either had an 18-month clean debt limit or what was agreed to, a three-month clean debt limit. So when given two bad options, obviously, you can’t be too critical of anybody,” he said. “Our grass roots are very confused. They’re saying, ‘Is this President going to cut deals with Democrats from here on out? And I would suggest that that’s not the case and that’s based on talking not only to the President but also talking to Speaker Ryan and others.”
When asked about reports that he and other members of the House Freedom Caucus are meeting secretly to oust House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) from his position, Meadows denied the claims saying he believes Ryan is “up to the task.”
“I can tell you, there is no plan, there is nothing there and I can tell you, that if I was working on a plan to depose the speaker, you wouldn’t be reading about it in the press,” he said.
Watch the full interview below:
