Vice President Joe Biden accused Tea Party-backed Republicans of "acting like terrorists" in the negotiations to raise the debt limit during a two-hour meeting with Democrats on Monday, Politico reports. Expressing the frustrations the liberal wing of the party has with the concessions made to Republicans, Rep. Mike Doyle angrily said, “We have negotiated with terrorists... This small group of terrorists have made it impossible to spend any money.” Biden agreed. Oops:
Biden, driven by his Democratic allies’ misgivings about the debt-limit deal, responded: “They have acted like terrorists,” according to several sources in the room.
It clearly was a dramatic meeting, one that was only supposed to go on for an hour. Rep. Barney Frank tells The Atlantic's Josh Green that Biden also said Obama made "a blood oath" to let the Bush tax cuts expire for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans. But Biden's not the only one with a flair for the dramatic: Rep. Emanuel Cleaver called it a "sugar-coated Satan sandwich,” and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi jokingly agreed, saying, "Probably is, with some Satan fries on the side."
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Elspeth Reeve
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