Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), a senior leader among House Democrats, criticized Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) for acting beholden to the interests of the most conservative wing in his party amid threats of a government shutdown.
“I don’t see how we can [take McCarthy at his word] because he just demonstrated that he’s not keeping his word,” Clyburn said in an MSNBC interview Saturday. “He made a deal and the Senate has been operating for several days, weeks now really, to live up to that plan.”
The House GOP has feuded in recent weeks over funding the government before the Sept. 30 deadline. A small group of conservative Republicans have refused to work with McCarthy, demanding deeper budget cuts than what the Speaker initially agreed to with Democrats earlier this year.
“I don’t think they have an endgame,” Clyburn said of the holdouts. “I think what they’re attempting to do is satisfy the five or six people that they made some kind of a deal with… It’s like the tail wagging the dog. They don’t have a plan.”
The issue highlights their concerns over a bipartisan deal that raised the debt ceiling earlier this yeer. In that agreement, Democrats and Republicans agreed to make small budget cuts this month. But, the House has attempted to go back on the agreement, according to Clyburn.
“All of the sudden, the House can not seem to do what they said they were going to do,” the South Carolina Democrat said.
Clyburn served as the Majority Whip in the previous Democratic leadership, which is responsible for lining up votes for House priorities. He now serves as Assistant Democratic Leader.
His caucus did not lose a procedural vote while he was the whip, he explained, while McCarthy faced rampant internal opposition over the same votes this week.
“As the Majority Whip, you have to keep up with the numbers and you have to consult with your members. I talked with [then-Speaker] Nancy Pelosi regularly, almost constantly, in order to ensure that we are on the same page,” Clyburn said. “And then you sit down with the leader — [Rep.] Steny Hoyer was the leader at the time — and he had relationships that I may not have had.”
“We just kept communicating, communicate, communicate,” he continued “That’s what it’s all about.”
The lawmaker added that he “can foresee” moderate Republicans working with Democrats on a discharge petition to bring a temporary budget measure to the floor this week. A discharge petition would require half of the House to advance a funding bill, likely one that cuts the budget less than what McCarthy has proposed.
“I would love to see a discharge petition and I hope that it would have at least 200 Republicans that vote for it,” Clyburn said. “I do believe that if a continuing resolution can do the things that are necessary to protect our military and to make sure that there aren’t any harms brought to people in the community, I do believe you could get the 218 votes to get a discharge petition on the floor.”
McCarthy has also faced threats of being ousted from speakership from the same conservative wing of the party. Clynurn suggested he could avoid those troubles and solve the government shutdown issue by simply negotiating with Democrats on a bipartisan funding measure.
“If [McCarthy] were to sit down with [Minority Leader] Hakeem Jeffries and work on a bipartisan resolution to this, and have a strong majority of Republicans voting for it, I think McCarthy can make a real good name for himself doing things in a very bipartisan way,” he said.