How a divided House GOP conquered the debt ceiling
GOP Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) and Chief Deputy Whip Guy Reschenthaler (R-Pa.) reveal the strategies they used to convince House Republicans to back McCarthy & Biden’s debt deal.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) speaks with reporters May 31, 2023, at the U.S. Capitol. | Francis Chung/POLITICO
In this episode of Deep Dive, Playbook co-author Rachael Bade joins House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) and Chief Deputy Whip Guy Reschenthaler (R-Pa.) just hours before final passage of the debt ceiling bill they shepherded through the House.
This is the behind the scenes story from inside the Republican whip’s office of how Kevin McCarthy’s leadership team convinced House Republicans to raise the debt ceiling for two years and embrace his agreement with President Joe Biden, which many on the right decried as a betrayal of the base. It’s a story of how Emmer and Reschenthaler pulled together a divided and fractious conference, dodging a ballooning effort to oust McCarthy from the gavel, and ultimately putting the ball back in the Democrats’ court.
