Republicans said tense negotiations over raising the $14.3 trillion debt limit at the White House ended when President Obama stormed out of the meeting with a stern warning to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.): "Don't call my bluff."

"It ended with the president abruptly walking out of the meeting," Cantor told reporters upon returning to the Capitol Wednesday.

Democrats immediately disputed the GOP account, saying Obama had sought to end a meeting when Cantor interrupted him to get a final word. "No. Absolutely not," Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told The Hill in a brief interview when asked about Cantor's description.

A Democratic source familiar with the negotiations said the reports of a dramatic or abrupt walk-out by Obama were overblown, but the source acknowledged that the president "said what he was going to say, he got up and walked out."

"The climax of the meeting was the president basically saying 'what's happening in this room confirms what everybody across the country thinks about Washington, D.C.,'" the official said. "Which is that people are more interested in protecting their base and political positioning than solving problems."