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McConnell Warns Biden Not To Expect Cooperation On Raising Debt Ceiling

The Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, warned President Joe Biden on Friday that he should not expect cooperation on raising the debt ceiling again, a day after he voted with Democrats to overcome a procedural hurdle and pave the way for a temporary extension through early December.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. (Photo: Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)

‘Will Not Happen Again’

“I write to inform you that I will not provide such assistance again if your all-Democrat government drifts into another avoidable crisis,” McConnell said in a letter to Biden.

According to CNN, a source familiar with the conversation, the pair also spoke on Friday. Another source said McConnell delivered the same message to the President that was in the letter.

The Senate voted 50-48 in favor of the extension on Thursday, after 11 Republicans, including McConnell, broke ranks to assist Democrats in breaking a filibuster. After weeks of partisan gridlock over the issue, the Kentucky Republican’s move allowed the debt ceiling deal to avert economic disaster, announced earlier in the day, to move forward.

The House is expected to convene on Tuesday to vote on the bill, which must be approved before it can be sent to Biden for signature.

However, while the debt limit extension has the potential to avert an immediate economic disaster, it does nothing to resolve the fundamental partisan stalemate over the issue but rather postpones the fight until a later date.

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Mitch McConnell

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell offered a short-term debt ceiling extension. (Photo: J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

A Poisoned Well

Former President Donald Trump, through his Save America PAC, also attempted to persuade senators not to support “this terrible deal being pushed by folding Mitch McConnell” prior to the vote.

Schumer and other Democrats had slammed Republicans for jeopardizing the country’s creditworthiness and inviting economic disaster, especially since much of the new debt was incurred while Trump was in office and Republicans controlled a majority of Congress.

“Despite immense opposition from Leader McConnell and members of his conference, our caucus held together and we have pulled our country back from the cliff’s edge that Republicans tried to push us over,”

Schumer said after the vote, in a partisan tone speech that enraged McConnell, who said Democrats should have been grateful for GOP assistance.

“It has poisoned the well even further,” McConnel wrote in his letter to Biden.

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