Murphy mum on whether he’d support Biden invoking 14th Amendment

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) declined to answer whether he would support President Biden if Biden invoked the 14th Amendment to resolve the debt ceiling crisis.

“You know, I don’t want to give Joe Biden advice, but I think we should do our job. I think that’s a precedent to just absolve Congress from being adults,” Murphy responded when NBC’s Chuck Todd asked him on “Meet the Press” whether he would support the move to avoid default.

Biden floated the idea of using the 14th Amendment last week as a way to unilaterally work around the debt ceiling. However, the president noted that it would not be a viable short-term solution with the country set to default without congressional action as early as June 1.

Biden met with Democratic and Republican congressional leaders last week to discuss the debt ceiling, but no compromises on the issue have been announced. Shortly after the meeting, Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said that there was no “new movement” on the negotiations.

Murphy said on Sunday that McCarthy’s stance on the debt ceiling “worries” him, adding that other leaders including Biden, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) have committed to keeping the U.S. from defaulting.

“What worries me is that Chuck Schumer, Joe Biden, even Mitch McConnell have said that, ‘If we can’t get an agreement in the next few weeks, default is off the table,'” the senator said. “The only leader who says, ‘We are going to light the American economy on fire if we can’t get an agreement in the next ten to 14 days,’ is Kevin McCarthy.”

“And that is deeply worrying to me because there’s an opportunity to talk about their really unpopular agenda of cuts, but the time to do that is when we’re negotiating the budget,” Murphy added.