Kevin McCarthy Accuses Fox News Host of Saying Things That Aren't 'True'

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy accused Fox News host Maria Bartiromo of saying things that "are not true" about the debt ceiling bill that ensured the United States would not default on its bills.

During his interview on Sunday Morning Futures, Bartiromo told McCarthy that she wanted to go through some of the criticism the bill received, pointing out that the California Republican did not get work age requirements for Medicaid included, as he had sought, and did not repeal the full $80 billion funding for 87,000 Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agents that McCarthy had said he wanted during negotiations with President Joe Biden.

McCarthy responded: "Well that's not true Maria...You're saying things that are not true" without specifying exactly which elements he was referring to.

The debt ceiling bill was signed by Biden after it passed by a vote of 314-117 in the House on Wednesday and 63-36 in the Senate on Thursday. The president later praised McCarthy for being "able to get along" during negotiations that he said were "straightforward," "completely honest" and "respectful."

During a press conference after the House vote, McCarthy brushed off suggestions that he might have given away more than Biden did in the deal, saying that he thought it was "wonderful" that more Democrats had voted for the bill than Republicans because they were now "on record" agreeing with some of his positions.

McCarthy told Bartiromo, "Let's first walk through what's in the bill because I can always vote against a bill for what's not in it, but let's see what's in it."

The House speaker then said that the bill actually cuts federal spending and that the deal did repeal the $1.4 billion allocated to hire new IRS agents this year.

Previous funding for IRS agents was signed into law by Biden in the Inflation Reduction Act last year. This act gave the IRS about $80 billion for increased enforcement, operational improvements, customer service, and systems modernization for the next decade.

When asked by the Fox News host about the number of Democrats that voted in favor of the bill, McCarthy said, "The thing you want to look at is which Democrats voted against this—AOC (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez), Bernie Sanders, the progressives. Why did they vote against it? Because we did get work requirements in welfare reform. Did we get it in everything? No."

McCarthy added that the next time the debt ceiling will be addressed will be in two years when Republicans "have an opportunity to win the Senate and the presidency."

Meanwhile, numerous House GOP members, particularly those on the party's far-right flank, spoke out against the debt limit deal.

Representative Lauren Boebert, a Colorado Republican, addressed her "no-show protest" to the vote on Saturday in a video posted to Twitter by saying, "No excuses, I was ticked off they wouldn't let me do my job, so I didn't take the vote. Once again, Washington's power machine shoved a multi-trillion-dollar bill down our throats, refused to allow debate or amendments, disregarded everything we fought for in January to actually allow representatives to do their jobs."

She added later in the video: "Deals cut in the dark are why we are headed towards $36 trillion in debt, and I refuse to be a part of it."

Newsweek has reached out to a political analyst via email for comment.

Updated: 6/5/23 3:10 p.m. ET. This article was updated with background information on the Inflation Reduction Act.