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House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Wednesday that he had a “good first meeting” with President Biden at the White House focused on the debt ceiling impasse and Republican demands for spending cuts.
“The president and I had a good first meeting,” McCarthy (R-Calif.) told reporters on the West Wing driveway. “We agreed to continue the conversation.”
Biden and McCarthy focused entirely on government spending at their first sit-down, McCarthy said after more than an hour of talks — rather than on other issues, such as contentious Republican demands for administration records.
The meeting happened hours after the FBI searched Biden’s Rehoboth Beach, Del., home for classified records after mishandled documents from Biden’s vice presidency and Senate years were found at his Wilmington home and former DC office.
“I did not talk to him about classified documents. I came down here to talk about the debt ceiling and our spending, and that’s what we spent our time on,” McCarthy said.
“We had an hour of conversation about this that I thought was a very good discussion,” he added. “I think there is an opportunity here to come to an agreement.”
The House speaker pointed to the $31.5 trillion national debt and growing interest payments to make the case that “we have got to change the trajectory to put us on a path to balance.
