During an appearance on MSNBC on Friday morning, longtime Washington, D.C. correspondent Jake Sherman admitted the current chaos of getting a budget deal done before a government shutdown is the worst he has ever seen.
Speaking with "Morning Joe" co-host Jonathan Lemire, the co-founder of Punchbowl News appeared stunned by what he has been watching.
With both Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk scrutinizing every move made by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), Sherman was asked, "Are we going to get a deal tonight to keep the government open?" by Lemire.
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"You better hope so if you're a Republican, Jonathan, because this is quite the inauspicious way for Donald Trump to start his presidency."
"He has inserted this debt limit into the negotiation at the 11th and half hour, driving up the price," he continued. "What he's done here is he's made it harder to raise the debt ceiling because you need Democratic votes and Democrats know that they can –– they could demand –– whatever they want from Republicans at the end of the day if Trump sticks with that demand, he's driven the price up significantly."
Stating he wasn't sure how House Republicans can pull off getting a budget through, he admitted, "I'll be honest with you, I've been doing this a long time, I'm not quite sure I've ever seen a mess like this before."
"The speaker has cycled through two proposals this week," he elaborated. "One, the first proposal, which was destined to fail, never made it to the floor. The second proposal Trump backed, unofficially whipped it and it failed miserably, showing the limits of Trump's power on Capitol Hill."
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