Democrats demanding President Biden be more aggressive in debt limit talks: Voters 'pulling their hair out'

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Chad Pergram speaks to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on latest debt ceiling negotiations

Kevin McCarthy tells Fox News' Chad Pergram on Wednesday he "feels good" about progress made today on debt ceiling negotiations.

Democrats are reportedly frustrated with President Biden and the White House over their approach to the debt limit negotiations as some have encouraged House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to ask President Biden to be more forceful. 

"It’s frustrating," Rep. Daniel Kildee, D-Mich., told the Washington Post. He also knocked House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who he said "feels free to negotiate in public."

Kildee said McCarthy's tactics are "not really a productive way to try to come to a conclusion," according to the outlet. 

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, encouraged Jeffries to call on Biden to address the nation, the Post reported. 

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FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the authorization of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine for kids ages 5 to 11, during a speech in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building’s South Court Auditorium at the White House in Washington, U.S., November 3, 2021. (REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/File Photo)

"Jeffries’s messaging has been clear and strong and consistent, but the problem is, he’s not even in the room right now," Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., told the paper. "We need more people echoing and amplifying Leader Jeffries’s message because he’s spot on."

Democrats have reportedly "seethed" over the president's tactics.

"Democrats have seethed in private over what they view as the White House’s 20th century approach to high-stakes negotiations — all done behind closed doors, with an occasional designated leak of information designed to shame the other side. Biden is adhering to the notion of not negotiating through the press, while McCarthy has frequently engaged the media," the Post reported. 

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Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., talks to reporters just after the Republican majority in the House narrowly passed a sweeping debt ceiling package as they try to push President Joe Biden into negotiations on federal spending, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, April 26, 2023.  (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Thursday that he doesn't believe there will be a deal today, but added progress was made. 

"I don't know if we have a deal today. We worked well past midnight last night. We did make progress yesterday, but we still have a number of items that need to get through," he said.

The Washington Post reported that swing-state Democrats were frustrated by their party as well and argued that they were missing a chance to "frame themselves as the party of fiscal responsibility." 

One Democrat told the Post that voters are "pulling their hair out at the Democrats lack of understanding" because voters don't view the Democratic Party as economically responsibile. 

President Joe Biden holds a meeting with his science and technology advisors at the White House on April 04, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images))

Several Democrats, such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., have argued that Republicans are holding the U.S. "hostage" through the debt limit negotiations. 

"The chaos that would ensue and the impact on people’s everyday lives would likely be immediate and it is one of the reasons why we need to take default off the table," the congresswoman said. 

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"The more House Republicans talk, the more information and insight the American people have in their true motives, which is that they are involved in a hostage-taking situation," Jeffries said during a news conference. "The hostage is the economy and everyday Americans."