House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) claimed on Sunday that Donald Trump never shut down the government, even though he famously took responsibility for the recent shutdown on video.
During an interview on Meet the Press, McCarthy suggested that it has been Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) who shut down the government because he refused to support Republican bills to fund Trump's border wall.
NBC host Chuck Todd pointed out that those Republican bills were brought up after Trump "shut down the government."
In point of fact, Trump reneged on a previous agreement to sign a continuing resolution to keep the government open which got unanimous support in the Senate, passing 100-0, thus creating the shutdown. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell opted to not submit the bill for veto override.
"He didn't shut it down!" McCarthy said of Trump.
"He's the one that said he'd be proud to own it," Todd interrupted. "Who else did it? He rejected the Senate bill to keep the government open."
"No, no," McCarthy replied, attempting to revise history. "The House had a bill, the Senate had a bill. Like every other piece of legislation, it takes 60 votes in the Senate. Republicans don't have 60 in the Senate."
"If it takes 60 votes in the Senate, there's probably blame on both sides," the minority leader opined, pretending that the Senate had passed a unanimous bill to keep the government open.
