Representative Ro Khanna (D-CA) said Thursday on MSNBC’s “Alex Wagner Tonight” that it was President Joe Biden’s “patriotic duty” to use the 14th Amendment to address the debt ceiling.
Wagner asked, “I do have to ask, looking at the bonkers nature of the Republican conference, how you’re looking at this debt ceiling negotiations? A lot of people are saying, this conference has so wacko, so uninterested actual governance, why should the president of the United States be bargaining with their representative, Kevin McCarthy, directly? Why should he make any concessions to people who did not have the interest of American voters and heart. Why doesn’t use the 14th Amendment? Why doesn’t he use anything, something, but don’t negotiate with terrorists.”
Khanna said, “He should.”
Wagner asked, “He should what?”
Khanna said, “Use the 14th Amendment.”
He continued, “We should not be negotiating in this country about whether we pay our debts. America should pay our debts. This is not a Congress against the president. This is a Congress trying to overrule what past congresses have already told the president to spend. So, he has every authority to say, Congress, you told me to spend this money. I’m not going to default on America’s debts. We’re a patriotic nation. It’s patriotic to pay our bills, and I’m going to pay the bills. Let them sue. let them sue and take it to the court.”
Khanna added, “I think if President Biden says, ‘I’m going to do the patriotic duty. In America we pay our debts. I’m going to pay them. Challenge me in the courts.’ I don’t think that they’re going to win on that argument.”
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