The office of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said on Sunday that he “misspoke” when he claimed in a Fox News interview that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y) told him that there’s nothing in the debt ceiling deal that is favorable to Democrats.
While trying to sell the deal to the Fox News audience on Sunday McCarthy claimed Jeffries told him “there’s nothing in the bill for them. There’s not one thing in the bill for Democrats.”
But, Jeffries told Face The Nation that he hasn’t read the text of the deal and never spoke with McCarthy.
“I have no idea what he’s talking about, particularly because I have not been able to review the actual legislative text,” Jeffries said. “I talked to him yesterday afternoon… I haven’t spoken to him since that point and time.”
A source in McCarthy’s office later told the Hill that the speaker “misspoke that it was Jeffries said that to him, but that other Democrats have told him as much.”
Biden and McCarthy announced the deal on Saturday night to raise the debt ceiling for two years, freeze spending on domestic programs, increase spending on defense and veterans issues and impose some new work requirements on federal food assistance programs, according to CNN.
Both Democrats and Republicans have criticized the deal.
