McCarthy confronts key decisions as Congress hurtles toward government shutdown

Anderson Cooper 360

CNN

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4.1 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 26 September 2023

⏱️ 43 minutes

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Summary

There are just six days before the government runs out of money and House Republicans have yet to rally around a short-term option. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is caught between risking a shutdown to keep his job or cross GOP hardliners and work with Democrats to reach a deal. Democratic Rep. James Clyburn tells Anderson Cooper if he thinks McCarthy will risk his speakership to work with Democrats and keep the government funded. Plus, former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, who delivered bombshell testimony to the House committee investigating the January 6 insurrection, defended what she said under oath in her first TV interview since testifying on Capitol Hill. Former Trump White House Communications Director Alyssa Farah Griffin worked with Hutchinson. She joins AC360 to discuss how important Hutchinson’s testimony was and says, “you need people who are to put what’s right in the country ahead of their own ambition.”

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Tonight on 360, six days, still a government shutdown, the man who could prevent it,
0:05.8	House Speaker Kevin McCarthy still can't or won't, if it means risky as job, or keeping
0:10.6	him honest.
0:11.6	Also tonight, Democratic Senator Bob Mnendez, and whether anyone actually buys his
0:15.1	new explanation for all that alleged bribe money, founded his home, is two more fellow
0:19.6	Democrats in the Senate want him gone.
0:22.1	And later, the young poet, whose words of hope electrified President Biden's inauguration
0:25.9	Amanda Gorman, and her warning now about silencing writers and banning books.
0:30.5	Good evening.
0:31.5	Thanks for joining us.
0:32.5	We begin tonight, keeping him honest with Kevin McCarthy, who by title at least is the
0:36.0	most powerful Republican in Washington, not to mention, a Speaker of the House second
0:40.3	in line after Vice President Harris to the presidency.
0:43.5	It is certainly a lofty role in a lofty title.
0:45.9	And today, when asked about what it takes, including working with Democrats to pass legislation,
0:51.0	to prevent the government shutdown, now six days away, Speaker McCarthy had a lofty
0:55.6	answer.
0:58.1	My whole focus, what's in my mind, what drives me, is the American people.
1:03.1	My whole focus, he said, to see in his monoragia, is the American people.
1:06.5	Now, according to the Census Bureau, there are upwards of 335 million people in the country.
1:11.4	And with Speaker McCarthy, truly we're doing the people's business with only just a fraction
1:15.5	of that number in mind, it would be an achievement.
	...

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