McCarthy, McConnell Clash Over Republican Leadership in Congress

Tensions continue to grow between House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell over the omnibus spending bill, with some GOP members expressing concerns about the GOP leadership in Congress next year.

McCarthy recently criticized McConnell's plan to pass the omnibus spending package before Christmas. The bill is meant to avert the shutdown of the federal government,

McCarthy, who is generally backed by former President Donald Trump, said on Tuesday that Senate Republicans shouldn't vote for the bill, The Hill reported.

The House minority leader argued that they could instead vote for a stopgap measure that would put a hold on federal funding levels until January when the GOP takes control of the House majority, which they narrowly won during this year's midterm elections.

"They're trying to jam us right before Christmas. Why would you ever move forward when there's a change in power in 21 days where Republicans would have a stronger hand?" McCarthy said. "We wouldn't be talking about adding more money. We'd talk about decreasing."

McCarthy said during an appearance on Fox News last week that Republicans who are working on a larger spending deal are "wrong" to do so, and the issue should wait until the new year.

But, McConnell's allies in the Senate said that McCarthy's criticism of the omnibus bill is "not helpful." However, McCarthy was on board with the omnibus bill, according to McConnell, who had an amicable relationship with former President Donald Trump prior to 2020 election fraud claims.

McConnell previously told reporters that he spoke with McCarthy during a White House meeting held on November 29, and said that the House Minority Leader agreed on passing the omnibus bill by the end of the year. President Joe Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer also attended that meeting.

"We had a really good meeting. Laid out the challenges that we're all collectively facing here. I think there's widespread agreement that we'd be better off with an omnibus than a [continuing resolution], but there are some significant hurdles to get over to do that," McConnell said on November 29 after the White House meeting.

But, a spokesperson for McCarthy told The Hill Wednesday that the House Minority leader was never on board with passing the omnibus bill during or after the White House meeting.

McCarthy confirmed that he is a "hard no" on the pending omnibus package, according to the spokesperson, arguing that it is better to pass regular appropriations bills than passing continuing resolutions.

Meanwhile, some Republicans are worried that the tensions between McCarthy and McConnell might drag on to the next year and potentially create a "challenging" working partnership between them in Congress, according to The Hill.

Also, the next House speaker might face a challenge in passing spending bills and will have to rely on House Democratic votes because there are some House conservatives who might not vote for any appropriations legislation.

"He's got a very thin majority and I know he knows it's going to be hard to do some of the things they want to do," said Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas, a McConnell ally, according to The Hill.

Meanwhile, the senior Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama, said "basically, McCarthy is the Republican leader, he wants to be Speaker of the House and he's got some dissidents there and a lot of his dissidents are going to be no on anything."

Some senators are sparing McCarthy from discussions about the government spending bill, according to Semafor, with Republican Senator Kevin Cramer of Nevada, saying, "I just think for Kevin's sake, even though he's not asking for it, I think some Republicans just feel like we should relieve him of that burden."

Newsweek reached out to Trump's media office for comment.