Cruz, McCarthy say Biden bending to ‘radical left’ on debt talks

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) claimed on Sunday that President Biden is bending to progressives amid negotiations over the debt ceiling with the threat of default looming.

“You know, it really is unfortunate to see how Joe Biden is approaching this job. It’s all politics all the time, and he consistently goes to the hard left. He is off in Hiroshima right now, in Japan. He should be in Washington, D.C. He should be sitting down and working out a deal, working out a compromise,” Cruz said on “Fox News Sunday.”

Biden was in Japan over the weekend for the Group of Seven talks in Hiroshima and had plans to visit Papua New Guinea and Australia afterward, but cut his international trip short to head home for in-person talks with McCarthy and others on the debt ceiling.

Cruz also argued that the House “did its job” when it passed a GOP proposal to lift the debt ceiling and make spending cuts last month.

“And, unfortunately, Joe Biden has handed his entire agenda over to the radical left, to the Bernie Sanders and the AOCs of the world,” Cruz said, referring to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).

McCarthy, meanwhile, argued on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures” that Biden “has really shifted right after the more progressive, socialist wing of the party stood up and says they want to spend more money,” and claimed the president “wants default more than he wants a deal.”

Host Maria Bartiromo asked whether McCarthy thinks Sanders is “among those leading this” for Biden.

“Well, the president — he really wags the dog. I mean, when Bernie Sanders or AOC says something, the White House shifts to the other way,” McCarthy said.

Sanders, during a separate interview, dismissed McCarthy’s remarks.

“They want to cut programs that the elderly the children, the sick and the poor need. If I have any role, that’s great,” he said, referring to Republicans, on MSNBC’s “Velshi.”

McCarthy and Biden had a phone call on Sunday as the president made his way back from Hiroshima. Staff-level talks are set to resume on Sunday, and the president and the Speaker are set to meet on Monday.

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