House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said Thursday that President Donald Trump made a deal with Democrats on aid for Hurricane Harvey, the debt ceiling and the federal budget to avoid "some partisan fight" amidst recovery efforts.
"He wanted to have a bipartisan response and not a food fight on the timing of the debt limit attached to this bill," Ryan said in a live interview with The New York Times. "That's what I believe his motivation was."
"What the president didn't want to do is have some partisan fight in the middle of the response to this," he continued. "He wanted to make sure we had a bipartisan moment."
Trump announced Wednesday that he and Democratic leaders had agreed to increase the debt limit and to fund the government for another three months, in a move that came as a surprise to Republicans. Earlier that day, Ryan rejected the Democratic proposal to a three-month deal to raise the debt ceiling and fund the government, calling it "ridiculous and disgraceful" just hours before Trump agreed to it.
"It could put in jeopardy the kind of hurricane response we need to have," he said, according to the Times.
"To play politics with the debt ceiling, like [Senate Minority Leader Chuck] Schumer [D-N.Y.] and [House Minority Leader Nancy] Pelosi [D-Calif.] apparently are doing, I don't think is a good idea," he added.
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