Trump: GOPers in Congress are "terrible negotiators"
Donald Trump argued Sunday that Republicans could use the impending need to raise the debt ceiling to force President Obama to make spending cuts, but they aren't unified enough to do so.
"They really do have a tremendously powerful weapon. But they don't use it and they don't use it properly. They are terrible negotiators," he said on CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday.
The U.S. will exhaust its bargaining authority on Nov. 5, and Congress will need to lift the debt ceiling to prevent the U.S. from defaulting on its debt. Republicans have used the vote in the past to try to force President Obama to agree to spending cuts.
"The problem is, you'll have 70 percent of the Republicans say, 'We're not closing government,'" Trump said. "When you say that, and the other side says, 'Well, we've got 70 percent of the people say it's not going to happen.' The other 30 percent are essentially, they're rendered useless. It's really unfair to them, because they're left out there hanging.
"If they were really unified and if they took that 30 percent stance, assuming they want to really make changes and do it right and cut the budget, cut the deficit, do things that should be doing, if they took that group and if everybody was unified, Obama would fold," he added.
Trump also said in his interview that he would "be okay" with Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, as speaker of the House, despite the fact that Ryan "doesn't seem to want" the job.