(WASHINGTON) — Former Rep. Matt Gaetz on Monday filed a lawsuit against the House Ethics Committee that investigated him for years, in an effort to stop the committee from releasing its report on their probe into allegations of sexual misconduct and illicit drug use.
“This action challenges the Committee’s unconstitutional and ultra vires attempt to exercise jurisdiction over a private citizen through the threatened release of an investigative report containing potentially defamatory allegations,” the filing from Gaetz says.
Gaetz in the filing asks the court to issue a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction to block the release of the report or any findings, which he says would cause “damage to [his reputation and professional standing” that would be “immediate and severe.”
“The threatened release of information believed to be defamatory by a Congressional committee concerning matters of sexual propriety and other acts of alleged moral turpitude constitutes irreparable harm that cannot be adequately remedied through monetary damages,” the filing states.
Gaetz’s lawsuit highlights that he is now a public citizen and claims he did not receive “proper notice” of the report’s impending release.
“After Plaintiff’s resignation from Congress, Defendants improperly continued to act on its investigation, and apparently voted to publicly release reports and/or investigative materials related to Plaintiff without proper notice or disclosure to Plaintiff,” the complaint states.
Gaetz has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. Following indications last week that the committee would release its report, Gaetz took to X in a lengthy post, writing in part that when he was single he “often sent funds to women” he dated and that he “never had sexual contact with someone under 18.”
“It’s embarrassing, though not criminal, that I probably partied, womanized, drank and smoked more than I should have earlier in life. I live a different life now,” he posted. “I’ve never been charged. I’ve never been sued. Instead, House Ethics will reportedly post a report online that I have no opportunity to debate or rebut as a former member of the body.”
The Justice Department declined to charge him last year after a yearslong investigation into similar allegations.
President-elect Donald Trump last month tapped Gaetz to serve as attorney general in the incoming administration, and Gaetz resigned his congressional seat shortly after. But Gaetz subsequently withdrew his name from consideration, saying his confirmation process was “unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition.”
The Ethics Committee was in the final stages of its probe into Gaetz when Trump tapped him for attorney general. The committee generally drops investigations of members if they leave office, but Gaetz’s resignation prompted a fiery debate on Capitol Hill over whether the panel should release its report to allow the Senate to perform its role of vetting presidential nominations.
The committee initially voted against releasing the report before reversing course, sources said.
(WASHINGTON) — Pennsylvania Democrat Sen. John Fetterman said he hopes President-elect Donald Trump is successful in his second term and that he’s not “rooting against him.”
“If you’re rooting against the president, you are rooting against the nation,” Fetterman told ABC “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl. “So country first. I know that’s become maybe like a cliche, but it happens to be true.”
Fetterman, who has made headlines as one of the few in his party who have met with several of Trump’s cabinet picks, said his Democratic colleagues need to “chill out” over everything Trump does.
“I’ve been warning people, like, ‘You got to chill out,’ you know? Like the constant, you know, freakout, it’s not helpful,” Fetterman said. “Pack a lunch, pace yourself, because he hasn’t even taken office yet.”
Asked by Karl what the single biggest factor was behind Vice President Kamala Harris’ loss in November, Fetterman pointed to the “undeniable” and “singular political talent” of Trump.
“He had the energy and almost a sense of fearlessness to just say all those kinds of things,” Fetterman said. “You literally were shot in your head and had the presence of mind to respond, you know, ‘Fight, fight, fight!’ I mean, that’s a political talent.”
Fetterman also said that the election was “never about fascism” to him. Harris said in an October town hall that she believed Trump was a fascist after Trump’s former chief of staff John Kelly said that his old boss fit the definition of one. Fetterman said that was not a word he would use.
“Fascism, that’s not a word that regular people, you know, use, you know?” Fetterman said. “I think people are going to decide who is the candidate that’s going to protect and project, you know, my version of the American way of life, and that’s what happened.”
Fetterman also pointed to Elon Musk’s endorsement of Trump as another key factor in the election.
“It’s rare to have a surrogate that has a lot of fanboys and is very compelling to a lot of the demographic that we are losing in my party and in Pennsylvania,” Fetterman said about the billionaire businessman.
Fetterman said Musk’s endorsement “really mattered” and he believed it did “move the needle.”
Fetterman was the first Democrat in the Senate to meet with Pete Hegseth, the controversial former Fox News anchor who Trump selected for defense secretary. Fetterman has not ruled out supporting him — or any of Trump’s other picks.
“My commitment, and I think I’m doing the job, is I’m going to sit down and have a conversation,” Fetterman said. “To me, it would be distressing if, if he is confirmed, if the Democrats are going to turn our back collectively to the leader of the defense. I mean, that’s astonishing and that’s dangerous.”
Along with Hegseth, Fetterman has met with Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence, and Kash Patel, Trump’s selection for FBI director.
Patel’s vow to take on Trump’s political enemies has drawn scrutiny. Asked by Karl whether he thinks Patel will use the FBI to do so, Fetterman said while he wasn’t able to go into detail due to the off-the-record nature of the meeting, “That’s never going to happen.”
“So you see yourself inclined to be open to supporting these controversial nominees?” Karl asked.
“Potentially,” Fetterman replied. “But nobody can accuse me of just saying I had a closed mind, or I just said no because Trump picked this person, or whatever.”
Fetterman has said he will vote to confirm Rep. Elise Stefanik as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. He said he will also back Sen. Marco Rubio for secretary of state.
“Rubio, for me, it’s like, he’s in the other party, obviously, but you know, there’s a lot of, the Venn [diagram] is closer, there’s a lot of overlap,” Fetterman said. “If I was, as a Democrat, looking to assemble a bipartisan cabinet, he’d be a solid choice.”
Asked what his message to Trump would be if the president-elect called him, Fetterman said he’d like to talk about opportunities where “we could work together.”
“I’d like to avoid the, you know, the cheap heat and some of the other stuff, but it’s going to be a kooky ride, I’m sure,” he said. “And you know, I try to be a committed, steady voice for Pennsylvania and to remember that we have to find as many wins in the middle of incredibly divisive times.”
(WASHINGTON) — After days of heated negotiations on Capitol Hill and eleventh-hour interference from President-elect Donald Trump and his ally Elon Musk, the House passed a funding bill to prevent a government shutdown Friday night, with the Senate following suit early Saturday morning.
The 118-page bill contains most of the provisions that were put in place in the bipartisan bill that was agreed to on Wednesday before it was killed after Musk criticized Republicans who supported it.
Trump also called for the bill to raise the debt limit ceiling. The federal government is not expected to hit its borrowing limit until sometime in the spring or winter of 2025, and Trump has stated his desire to have the issue dealt with while Joe Biden was president.
Under the proposal, which is awaiting Biden’s signature, the federal government would be funded until March 2025. It did not include a provision to raise the debt ceiling limit.
The bill did include $100 billion for disaster aid, $30 billion for farmers and a one-year extension of the farm bill, provisions that were under heavy debate prior to this week’s votes.
Some of the provisions that were in the bill earlier in the week were removed including $100 million for pediatric cancer research and a deal that would have transferred the land that holds RFK Stadium from the federal government to the District of Columbia.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden’s administration will announce on Friday another $4.28 billion dollars in student loan relief for nearly 55,000 public service workers.
The announcement will bring the total loan forgiveness by the Biden administration to “approximately $180 billion for nearly 5 million Americans,” according to a fact sheet from the Department of Education.
The forgiveness will be delivered to individuals enrolled in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program (PSLF), which allows for debt forgiveness for people in jobs like firefighting, nursing and teaching after 10 years of continuous payment.
The Biden administration has made fixes to this program that had failed to deliver student loan relief to many due to poor implementations and errors in the program, officials said.
“The public servants approved for debt cancellation today include teachers, nurses, service members, law enforcement officials, and other public service workers who have dedicated their lives to giving back to their communities and who are finally earning the relief they are entitled to under the law,” Biden said in a statement.
Of the nearly 5 million borrowers who have had more than $180 billion in debt relieved by the administration, more than 1 million were through the PSLF. The relief for those PSLF borrowers totals about $78 billion, the administration said.
“From Day One of my Administration, I promised to make sure that higher education is a ticket to the middle class, not a barrier to opportunity,” Biden said in the statement.
He added, “Because of our actions, millions of people across the country now have the breathing room to start businesses, save for retirement, and pursue life plans they had to put on hold because of the burden of student loan debt.”
(WASHINGTON) — Texas death row inmate Robert Roberson, whose “shaken baby syndrome” murder conviction in the death of his 2-year-old daughter has come under scrutiny, has been ordered to appear before the Texas House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee on Friday over the state’s so-called “junk science” law.
The legislation, passed in 2013, creates a pathway for people to challenge their convictions if new scientific evidence or developments would have impacted the outcome of their case. However, some legislators say they are concerned that the state law may not adequately address these issues and it is now being investigated by the House committee.
“Robert is eager to testify and grateful for the chance to be heard,” said Gretchen Sween, Roberson’s attorney. “We will do all we can to cooperate, and I profoundly hope that his ability to appear is not obstructed by those who, for whatever reason, do not want the lawmakers and the public to hear from him directly about his experience trying to communicate his innocence.”
Roberson was set to become the first person in the U.S. executed for a shaken baby syndrome diagnosis murder conviction on Oct. 17 before the court intervened and a state House committee issued a subpoena for Roberson to testify on the law on Oct. 21, halting the execution. However, Roberson did not testify that day.
A new execution date has not yet been scheduled, according to Roberson’s legal representatives. In November, the Supreme Court of Texas noted that a subpoena could not block a scheduled execution.
Roberson was found guilty of the 2002 murder of his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki, in part based on the testimony of a pediatrician who described swelling and hemorrhages in her brain to support a shaken baby syndrome diagnosis. He was tried and convicted of capital murder in 2003 and sentenced to death.
Roberson’s legal team argued that evidence not presented at the trial found that Nikki had pneumonia and had been prescribed respiratory-suppressing drugs by doctors in the days leading up to her death, leading to a case of severe viral and bacterial pneumonia that progressed to sepsis and then septic shock.
Additionally, Roberson’s team says his autism affects how he expresses emotion; investigators noted Roberson’s lack of emotion during his arrest.
Roberson’s fight for clemency has been backed by a bipartisan group of more than 80 state lawmakers, as well as medical, scientific and criminal justice advocates who have questioned the legitimacy of the use of the shaken baby syndrome diagnosis in his case based on newer scientific evidence. The lead detective on Roberson’s case at the time, Brian Wharton, also now argues that missing evidence hindered the case.
However, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and other state officials have argued that “Roberson was lawfully sentenced to death” and that he has “exhausted every legally available appellate avenue” — noting that the case was heard once more by a trial court in 2021 in a dayslong evidentiary hearing after his execution was first halted, and earlier this year, Roberson’s team requested that a district court reopen his case.
Paxton also argued that the jury did not convict Roberson solely based on the controversial shaken baby syndrome diagnosis, though Roberson’s attorneys said that “shaken baby” was referred to by prosecutors and witnesses throughout the jury trial.
President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday endorsed a spending deal that House Republican leadership said it had reached to continue to fund the government through March and avoid a government shutdown at the end of the week.
“All Republicans, and even the Democrats, should do what is best for our Country, and vote “YES” for this Bill, TONIGHT!” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.
The House began debating the new bill Thursday evening before a vote later tonight.
Earlier Thursday, House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole told reporters that House Republicans had reached an agreement among themselves. Asked if Trump is on board, Cole replied, “All I’ll tell you is we have an agreement.”
Cole refused to divulge any details of the deal, but he told ABC News that the text of the bill would be posted online shortly.
But in his post, Trump said the “newly agreed to American Relief Act of 2024 will keep the Government open, fund our Great Farmers and others, and provide relief for those severely impacted by the devastating hurricanes.”
He also said that the bill would push raising the debt ceiling to January 2027 from June of next year. Congress last raised the country’s borrowing limit in June 2023 and had suspended it until June 2025.
“A VERY important piece, VITAL to the America First Agenda, was added as well – The date of the very unnecessary Debt Ceiling will be pushed out two years, to January 30, 2027. Now we can Make America Great Again, very quickly, which is what the People gave us a mandate to accomplish,” Trump wrote.
GOP House leaders and Vice-President-elect JD Vance were hoping to appease both Trump’s demands that any legislation to fund the government also deals with raising or eliminating the country’s debt ceiling, as well as House Republicans on the right who are traditionally against any spending deal or debt limit increase.
Meanwhile, Democrats have refused to budge from the deal they originally worked out with Republicans that Trump and Elon Musk demolished on Wednesday.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called the latest proposal “laughable” as Democrats gathered to strategize their next move.
“The Musk-Johnson proposal is not serious. It’s laughable. Extreme MAGA Republicans are driving us to a government shutdown,” he said.
Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin said it was unclear who Democrats are negotiating with — Trump or Musk.
Asked about Republicans who say they have now done their part and that Democrats would own any shutdown, Raskin replied, “It’s an intolerable way of proceeding… Democrats are going to try to figure out how to salvage the public good out of the wreckage just foist upon us.”
That bipartisan deal called for extending government spending at current levels until March and added other provisions like relief for disaster victims and farmers and a pay raise for members of Congress.
Things changed Wednesday after Musk began a pressure campaign on X with multiple posts opposing the deal. Later that day Trump and Vance posted a statement calling on Congress to “pass a streamlined spending bill,” with the president-elect echoing Musk’s threats of primarying any GOP member who didn’t comply.
Trump told ABC News’ Jonathan Karl Thursday morning that there will be a government shutdown unless Congress eliminates the debt ceiling or extends the limit on government borrowing before he takes office.
“We’re not going to fall into the debt ceiling quicksand,” he said. “There won’t be anything approved unless the debt ceiling is done with.”
Under current law, the federal government would hit its borrowing limit sometime in the spring of 2025, during the first months of the second Trump presidency. Trump, however, said he wants it taken care of now, while Joe Biden is president.
“Shutdowns only inure to the person who’s president,” Trump said.
Some Senate Republicans, including John Kennedy and Mike Rounds, expressed displeasure with Johnson’s bill and praised Trump for stepping in.
But Sen. Thom Tillis, whose home state was devastated by Hurricane Helene, said he’d do everything in his power to slow down the passage of any government funding bill that doesn’t include disaster relief.
Congress faces a deadline of Friday night, when the current government funding extension expires, to pass a new one or non-essential agencies would shut down.
House Republicans of every stripe were seen rotating in and out of the speaker’s office on Thursday — including House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole, Majority Whip Tom Emmer, Texas Rep. Chip Roy and Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris of Maryland.
Jeffries told reporters that raising the debt limit as part of the government funding bill is “premature at best.”
“We are going to continue to maintain an open line of communication to see if we can resolve this issue on terms that are favorable to the everyday Americans,” Jeffries said when asked if he was speaking to Johnson.
Behind closed doors during a caucus huddle Thursday morning, Jeffries delivered the same message to Democrats: Republicans backed out of a bipartisan deal and now have to figure out a way to get out.
“This kind of chaos and dysfunction has real-world impacts on hard-working people,” Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla., said.
Rep. Bill Keating, D-Mass., told ABC News that Jeffries quoted President John F. Kennedy to the caucus: “Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.”
“He said, look, we kept all our doors open during this negotiation. We made concessions. Most of us weren’t happy with the outcome of this, but you have to do your basic job. He’s saying that will continue. We’re open to everything, but we’re not open to the kind of bullying tactics that Elon Musk is doing,” Keating said.
Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., quipped, “We had a deal. We negotiated a deal, and then Musk decided to change the deal. Do I call him ‘President Musk?'”
Texas Rep. Greg Casar, the new chair of the progressive caucus was also critical of Musk.
“If Elon Musk is kind of cosplaying co-president here, I don’t know why Trump doesn’t just hand him the Oval Office, or Speaker Johnson should maybe just hand Elon Musk the gavel if they just want that billionaire to run the country,” Casar said.
While many Democrats support eliminating the debt limit in principle, members left their closed-door meeting opposed to striking it now as part of a spending deal, stressing it should be a separate matter.
ABC News’ Emily Chang and Ivan Pereira contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — GOP House leaders and Vice-President-elect JD Vance continue to meet behind closed doors in Speaker Mike Johnson’s office Thursday to craft a path forward and reach a budget deal — hoping to both appease President-elect Donald Trump’s evolving demands as well as rank and file members on the right who are traditionally against any spending deal or debt limit increase.
Across the aisle, Democrats maintain the best path forward is the defunct deal they struck with House Republicans that Trump and Elon Musk demolished on Wednesday.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries expressed disbelief that the bipartisan agreement had fallen apart — emphasizing that Republicans will own the consequences, including the impact of a potential government shutdown.
“This reckless Republican-driven shutdown can be avoided if House Republicans will simply do what is right for the American people and stick with the bipartisan agreement that they themselves negotiated,” Jeffries said at a news conference Thursday.
That deal called for extending government spending at current levels until March and added other provisions like relief for disaster victims and farmers and a pay raise for members of Congress.
Things changed Wednesday after Musk began a pressure campaign on X with multiple posts opposing the deal. Later that day Trump and Vance posted a statement calling on Congress to “pass a streamlined spending bill,” with the president-elect echoing Musk’s threats of primarying any GOP member who didn’t comply.
Trump told ABC News’ Jonathan Karl Thursday morning that there will be a government shutdown unless Congress eliminates the debt ceiling or extends the limit on government borrowing before he takes office.
“We’re not going to fall into the debt ceiling quicksand,” he said. “There won’t be anything approved unless the debt ceiling is done with.”
Under current law, the federal government would hit its borrowing limit sometime in the spring of 2025, during the first months of the second Trump presidency. Trump, however, said he wants it taken care of now, while Joe Biden is president.
“Shutdowns only inure to the person who’s president,” Trump said.
With several alternative plans to avert a shutdown under Republican consideration, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise told members to expect votes related to government funding Thursday, but the timing of any action was unclear as discussions continue.
Some Senate Republicans, including John Kennedy and Mike Rounds, expressed displeasure with Johnson’s bill and praised Trump for stepping in.
But Sen. Thom Tillis, whose home state was devastated by Hurricane Helene, said he’d do everything in his power to slow down the passage of any government funding bill that doesn’t include disaster relief.
Congress faces a deadline of Friday night, when the current government funding extension expires, to pass a new one or non-essential agencies would shut down.
House Republicans of every stripe were seen rotating in and out of the speaker’s office on Thursday — including House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole, Majority Whip Tom Emmer, Texas Rep. Chip Roy and Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris of Maryland.
Jeffries told reporters that raising the debt limit as part of the government funding bill is “premature at best.”
“We are going to continue to maintain an open line of communication to see if we can resolve this issue on terms that are favorable to the everyday Americans,” Jeffries said when asked if he was speaking to Johnson.
Behind closed doors during a caucus huddle Thursday morning, Jeffries delivered the same message to Democrats: Republicans backed out of a bipartisan deal and now have to figure out a way to get out.
“This kind of chaos and dysfunction has real-world impacts on hard-working people,” Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla., said.
Rep. Bill Keating, D-Mass., told ABC News that Jeffries quoted President John F. Kennedy to the caucus: “Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.”
“He said, look, we kept all our doors open during this negotiation. We made concessions. Most of us weren’t happy with the outcome of this, but you have to do your basic job. He’s saying that will continue. We’re open to everything, but we’re not open to the kind of bullying tactics that Elon Musk is doing,” Keating said.
Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., quipped, “We had a deal. We negotiated a deal, and then Musk decided to change the deal. Do I call him ‘President Musk?'”
Texas Rep. Greg Casar, the new chair of the progressive caucus was also critical of Musk.
“If Elon Musk is kind of cosplaying co-president here, I don’t know why Trump doesn’t just hand him the Oval Office, or Speaker Johnson should maybe just hand Elon Musk the gavel if they just want that billionaire to run the country,” Casar said.
While many Democrats support eliminating the debt limit in principle, members left their closed-door meeting opposed to striking it now as part of a spending deal, stressing it should be a separate matter.
ABC News’ Emily Chang and Ivan Pereira contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — President-elect Donald Trump, after rejecting House Speaker Mike Johnson’s plan to avoid a government shutdown, worked the phones on Thursday, showing wavering confidence in Johnson and claiming he is aligned with billionaire Elon Musk, who first posted multiple calls to kill the GOP-brokered spending deal.
“If the speaker acts decisively, and tough, and gets rid of all of the traps being set by the Democrats, which will economically and, in other ways, destroy our country, he will easily remain speaker,” Trump told Fox News Digital.
In an separate interview, Trump suggested that Johnson’s proposed continuing resolution — which would keep spending going at current levels — was “unacceptable.”
“We’ll see. What they had yesterday was unacceptable,” Trump told NBC News. “In many ways it was unacceptable. It’s a Democrat trap.”
Trump also indicated that he had discussed his views on the bill with social media giant Musk and granted the billionaire permission to trash the government spending bill on his social media platform.
“I told him that if he agrees with me, that he could put out a statement,” Trump said.
Musk then conducted an all-out pressure campaign flooding his platform with dozens of posts threatening members of Congress to block Johnson’s government funding bill.
“Any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in 2 years!” Musk wrote.
Musk also called on his more than 200 million followers to call their representatives and urge them to block the bill. “Please call your elected representatives right away to tell them how you feel! They are trying to get this passed today while no one is paying attention.”
Trump’s own statement opposing the measure came hours after Musk put his thoughts on his social media platform.
Trump, too, argued against the bill and threatened to primary Republicans who vote to pass it.
“If Republicans try to pass a clean Continuing Resolution without all of the Democrat “bells and whistles” that will be so destructive to our Country, all it will do, after January 20th, is bring the mess of the Debt Limit into the Trump Administration,” Trump said in a post on Wednesday.
“Any Republican that would be so stupid as to do this should, and will, be Primaried. Everything should be done, and fully negotiated, prior to my taking Office on January 20th, 2025.”
The next morning, Trump shared a similar sentiment with Fox News Digital, saying, “Anybody that supports a bill that doesn’t take care of the Democrat quicksand known as the debt ceiling should be primaried and disposed of as quickly as possible.”
ABC News’ Soorin Kim and Will Steakin contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — If Congress fails to pass the continuing resolution to fund the government by Saturday, millions of federal workers could head into the holidays without paychecks. They could be furloughed or be asked to work without pay.
That includes some members of the military, and other critical government workers, such as TSA agents and air traffic controllers, just as the holiday travel craze begins.
Some contractors with the federal government are not guaranteed back pay, like federal employees, which could have devastating consequences for workers living paycheck-to-paycheck.
Despite the efforts to avert the shutdown, plans are still being made in case a deal is not made before Saturday’s deadline. The White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has already been in touch with agencies about their plans in case of a government shutdown, an OMB official told ABC News. The official said the initial communication with agencies about their shutdown plans happened last Friday.
That communication is part of OMB’s procedure, which is required by law, stating that one week prior to appropriations bills expiring, the office must “communicate with agency senior officials to remind agencies of their responsibilities to review and update orderly shutdown plans” and “share a draft communication template to notify employees of the status of appropriations.”
The procedure also states that the White House office must continue communicating with agencies ahead of any anticipated shutdown. The policy states that about two business days before the expected lapse in funding, “agencies should notify employees of the status of funding.”
Lawmakers in Congress continue to negotiate a deal that would keep the government funded. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise told ABC News on Wednesday that lawmakers had a “productive” late-night meeting in the House Speaker Mike Johnson’s office.
“We are going to continue to work through the night to the morning to get an agreement we can bring to the floor,” Scalise said, adding that he hoped the House could “get it resolved” on Thursday.
Johnson’s original plan called for extending government spending at current levels until March and added other provisions like relief for disaster victims and farmers and a pay raise for members of Congress. That plan is in jeopardy as President-elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk have pushed for Republicans not to accept that deal.
Trump has pushed Republicans to deal with the debt limit before he takes office, saying if they don’t, “he’ll have to ‘fight ’til the end’ with Democrats.”
In a joint statement Wednesday afternoon, Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance called on Congress to “pass a streamlined spending bill that doesn’t give [Senate Majority Leader] Chuck Schumer and the Democrats everything they want.”
ABC News’ Rachel Scott, Sarah Kolinovsky and Lauren Peller contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday took credit for killing the House Republican-proposed government funding bill, telling ABC News there will be a government shutdown unless Congress eliminates or extends the limit on government borrowing.
“We’re not going to fall into the debt ceiling quicksand,” Trump said in an exclusive phone interview. “There won’t be anything approved unless the debt ceiling is done with.”
Trump said he is concerned that if government borrowing reaches the limit set by the debt ceiling, it could lead to an economic depression. Under current law, the federal government would hit its borrowing limit sometime in the spring of 2025, during the first months of the second Trump presidency. Trump said he wants it taken care of now, while Joe Biden is president.
“By doing what I’m doing, I put it into the Biden administration,” Trump said. “In this administration, not in my administration.”
“The interesting thing is, [the debt ceiling] possibly means nothing, or it means [the] depression of 1929,” Trump added. “Nobody really knows. It means nothing, but psychologically it may mean a lot, right? In other words, it doesn’t have a real meaning other than you’ve violated something. And that may be just, one day, half a story, or it may lead to the depression of 1929 and nobody wants to take the chance, except the Democrats.”
Congress must pass a funding bill by Friday night to avoid a shutdown of major federal services.
Trump said he is more concerned about the debt ceiling, which was not part of the spending bill rejected by the House on Wednesday after Trump and ally Elon Musk weighed in, than he is in the level of government spending.
“I don’t mind the spending for the farmers and for disaster relief from North Carolina, etc., but that’s all,” he said, referring to $100 billion in disaster relief aid and $10 billion in assistance to farmers.
When asked about concerns about a potential shutdown, the president-elect reiterated there will be a shutdown if the debt ceiling isn’t addressed, and claimed it would be Biden’s fault.
“Shutdowns only inure to the person who’s president,” Trump said. “That’s what I tried to teach [former House Speaker] Kevin McCarthy, but I obviously didn’t do a very good job [with] a shutdown because he kept giving them extensions into my territory, a shutdown only hurts or inures to the person who happens to be president.”
As for House Speaker Mike Johnson’s fate, Trump said, “If he’s strong, he’ll survive it. If he’s strong, he will survive it.”
