


The White House confirmed Friday that the debt ceiling talks between President Joe Biden's team and House Republicans have paused but remained adamant that the administration is striving to reach a bipartisan solution to avoid a national default.
Rep. Garret Graves (R-LA), one of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's hand-picked negotiators, and other House Republicans quickly walked out of a closed-door meeting on the topic early on Friday.
GOP WALKS OUT OF DEBT CEILING NEGOTIATIONS WITH WHITE HOUSE: 'NOT PRODUCTIVE'
Graves called the talks "not productive" and told reporters that "until people are willing to have reasonable conversations about how you can actually move forward and do the right thing, then we’re not going to sit here and talk to ourselves."
“We’ve got to get movement by the White House. And we don’t have any movement yet," McCarthy added.
"There are real differences between the parties on budget issues, and talks will be difficult," a White House official said in a statement confirming the current pause in talks. "The president’s team is working hard towards a reasonable bipartisan solution that can pass the House and the Senate."
Biden is currently attending the G-7 leaders summit in Japan and is slated to return to Washington, D.C., on Sunday. Both he and McCarthy appointed a negotiating team to continue debt talks until his return following their meeting at the White House on Tuesday.
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A White House source told the Washington Examiner that, despite the tone of Graves's remarks, the president's team believes it is being reasonable in pursuing both Biden's priorities and a bipartisan solution. That person stated that the administration negotiators are closely aligned with Democrats on the issue.
There currently aren't any staff or principal level calls or meetings following Republicans' hasty exit on Friday, the source said, though White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre confirmed early Friday morning that Biden is slated to receive another update Saturday morning in Japan.