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McCain Blasts President Trump's debt deal: 'This was not an exercise in bipartisanship'


Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Sunday criticized the deal President Trump struck with Democrats to fund the government and raise the debt ceiling.

"This was not an exercise in bipartisanship," McCain said on CNN's "State of the Union."

"The Republican leaders, [Speaker Paul] Ryan [R-Wis.] and [Senate Majority Leader Mitch] McConnell [R-Ky.], were surprised to hear that he had cut this deal with 'Chuck and Nancy.' "

McCain said the proposal Trump accepted last week with Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had just been categorically rejected by the Speaker of the House.

"That's not the way we need to do business," he said.

He added that the agreement made is "basically devastating to national defense."

McCain said his first obligation, as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is to make sure "the men and women who are serving in our military have everything they need."

"Under this agreement, they not only don't have everything they need, their lives are in greater danger," he said. "We can't do that to them."

President Trump on Friday signed a spending package that would provide disaster aid to victims of Hurricane Harvey, while raising the debt ceiling and funding the government for three months.

The package was the result of a deal Trump made this week with Democratic leaders in Congress. Republicans had been seeking to raise the debt limit past the 2018 elections, or at least for the next six months.

The deal, which passed the House earlier Friday, contains more than $15 billion in disaster recovery aid for communities in Texas and Louisiana affected by Harvey














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