House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Monday pushed back on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) political strategy amid discussions for an omnibus deal with Democrats.
“Why would you want to work on anything if we have the gavel inside Congress?” McCarthy, who is expected to be the next Speaker, said in an appearance on Fox News.
“Wait till we’re in charge.”
McCarthy’s comments follow efforts by Senate Republicans, including McConnell, to work with Democrats in pushing through a bipartisan spending bill by the end of next week.
Democrats have said they want to pass an omnibus appropriations bill during Congress’s lame-duck session, and some members of the GOP appear poised to get on board with defense spending for Ukraine, among other items.
McCarthy disagreed with the bipartisan approach on Fox News, saying that Republicans should wait until they are “stronger in every negotiation” when they take the majority in the House in January.
“We’re 28 days away from Republicans having the gavel,” McCarthy told host Laura Ingraham.
“We would be stronger in every negotiation, so any Republican that’s out there trying to work with them is wrong.”
Ingraham asked the minority leader if his comments implicated McConnell, to which McCarthy responded: “Yes.”
The comments from McCarthy come shortly after he joined McConnell, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) in a meeting at the White House.
Following that meeting, McConnell said that the leaders were in “widespread agreement” that an omnibus deal was needed.