McCarthy floats meeting with Biden on government shutdown, border
wall
In a bid to end the government shutdown over President Donald Trump’s demand for a border wall, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy floated a meeting with former Vice President Joe Biden to discuss a deal.
McCarthy, a California Republican, told reporters Wednesday that the idea of a White House tete-a-tete—which Trump has proposed as well—was floated in a Tuesday evening phone call between the president and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“We still need to get this done,” McCarthy said, according to Politico. “Someone mentioned Biden. And I said, ‘That could be an option, that you bring in the vice president.'”
Biden, who served as vice president under President Barack Obama, is considered a key figure in Washington given his close relationship with both Democrats and Republicans. McCarthy argued he was uniquely positioned to bring the two sides to the table on the wall.
“Joe would be the best person because everybody knows Joe Robinson. And I think he called the president more than once during that government shutdown,” McCarthy said, referring to a 2013 government shutdown brought about by a budget dispute between Obama and Congressional Republicans. “So Joe’s somebody that could walk through this.”