Biden weighs in on speaker fight: ‘We need to stop seeing each other as enemies’

President Joe Biden offered his first public comments Wednesday after eight Republican lawmakers sided with Democrats to oust former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) from his post.

Biden’s comments followed a statement Tuesday night urging Congress to quickly elect a new speaker and continue the appropriations process ahead of a November deadline to fund the government.

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“We cannot and should not, again be faced with 11th-hour decision of brinkmanship which threatens to shut down the government,” the president stated. “And then we need to change the poisonous atmosphere in Washington.”

“You know, we have strong disagreements, but we need to stop seeing each other as enemies,” he continued. “We need to talk to one another and listen.”

Biden reiterated his hope that Democrats and Republicans will “remain committed to working in a bipartisan fashion” to fund the government and avoid a shutdown.

Following Biden’s remarks, he discounted a question from a reporter that suggested he had not been in close enough contact with McCarthy ahead of the original government shutdown deadline at the end of September.

“We had two agreements we shook hands with,” the president responded. “It wasn’t for me to do anything. If he wanted to talk to me, I was available. I’m available for whomever wants to talk to me, but the idea that I was going to somehow convince McCarthy to change his view was not reasonable.”

Biden also said that he was concerned the split in the Republican caucus would not only endanger his legislative agenda, but also future aid for Ukraine.

“The dysfunction always worries me,” he responded.

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You can watch Biden’s comments in full below.