House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Friday brushed off a letter from the conservative House Freedom Caucus members rejecting concessions on his debt limit negotiations with the White House and told reporters he felt "progress" was made in the prior night's talks.
"You're talking to people who don't know what's in the deal, so I'm not concerned about anybody making any comments right now about what they think is in or not in," McCarthy said when asked about the letter. "Whenever we come to an agreement, we'll make sure we will first brief our entire conference. So when you go and ask them questions, at least let them know what's in it before they're trying to get it.
"Look, what's going through right now is, members don't know what's all in. You all report things that aren't really true in the process, so people get concerned," McCarthy said. "If you wonder about holding the line, where we've been all the time, we don't want to be in this deadline. We wanted to solve this months before."
He also said he gives his GOP conference "a lot of credit" for passing their bill along party lines in April — but admitted it likely would not be the final deal.
"It raises the debt limit, it curves back our spending, brings back wasteful money, and actually unshackles what's holding us back," he said.
"This is all positive stuff. But unfortunately, we've got to get a bill that can get through the Senate and signed by the president, and it's a lot of negotiation ... but we're willing to do the work."
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, earlier this week urged colleagues to "hold the line" with McCarthy as he pressured the White House to agree to lower spending limits in debt ceiling negotiations.
"While House Republicans are fighting for hard-working American families facing a woke, weaponized government at odds with our way of life. President [Joe] Biden and Democrats have been dragging their feet for weeks to fight for rich liberal elitists who want more spending, more government, more corporate subsidies, and less freedom," Roy said in the memo.
McCarthy told reporters Friday "we've got to make more progress now."