Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) called out Republicans for their part in the “most unproductive Congress” on Wednesday after Elon Musk and President-elect Donald Trump paraded House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) stopgap spending bill into chaos.
“We’re looking at this like this is their problem,” Crockett told MSNBC’s Alex Wagner.
She later continued, “Here’s the deal — there is no fixing this without the Democrats. We have seen this over and over and I’m just going to sit back and sip my tea and wait on them to figure it out.”
Trump, in a joint statement with Vice President-elect JD Vance on Wednesday, knocked a bipartisan budget deal that would have averted a government shutdown before funding expires on Friday.
Trump — on top of his call for a new budget bill — demanded a raise to the debt ceiling under the Biden administration as he threatened Republicans with primaries should they try to pass the continuing resolution without such a move.
Lawmakers were surprised by the demand to increase the debt ceiling, a matter that wasn’t part of the original negotiations and wasn’t expected to be taken up until summer 2025.
Trump’s demands, coupled with Musk’s sea of X posts blasting the bill as one of the “worst” ever written, arrive as several Republicans have either signaled that they won’t support Johnson or been publicly torn on keeping him on as speaker next month.
Crockett, later in her interview with Wagner, said that Republicans don’t “understand” how to govern and don’t exhibit a “unified caucus” as she slammed the party for bowing down to “shadow president” Musk.
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“This quote unquote ‘mandate’ that MAGA thinks exists, it ain’t going nowhere because they literally can’t do the basics. We have passed the least amount of bills in this Congress because of the Republicans,” said Crockett, who added that Trump’s debt ceiling demand is because he looks to “run” the debt up.
She later continued, “Listen, I ain’t got no favors for you, Trump. When you get here then yes, you will have the House, the Senate as well as the White House and y’all can see if y’all can figure it out. But right now, I am not trying to shut down this government…”