Mulvaney shuts down Acosta over 'Schumer shutdown' question
Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney scolds CNN's Jim Acosta during White House briefing on the looming government shutdown.
CNN’s Jim Acosta resumed his role as White House punching bag on Friday when Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney shut him down during a briefing on the looming government shutdown.
Acosta asked, “How can it be the Schumer Shutdown when Republicans control the White House, the House and the Senate?”
Mulvaney smirked before firing back, “Come on, you know the answer to that as well as anybody. I laugh when people say that… you know as well as anybody that it takes 60 votes in the Senate… you know that?”
Acosta timidly acknowledged that he did, in fact, claim to know what Mulvaney was referring to before re-phrasing his question.
“The president asked Congress to come up with a solution for the Dreamers. Congress was in the room, members of Congress were in the room with the president last week, seemed to be a fairly productive meeting, and the whole process got blown up,” Acosta said. “It seems like the whole process was blown up by the president’s comment.”
Mulvaney tried to respond as Acosta spoke over him for a few seconds. The OMB director eventually stated that Democrats want Trump to be blamed for the shutdown.
“This is purely an attempt by the Senate Democrats, led by Mr. Schumer -- that’s why we call it the Schumer Shutdown -- in order to try and get a shutdown they think this president gets blamed for,” Mulvaney said.
Conservative commentator Dana Loesch tweeted that Acosta “just embarrassed himself” shortly after the exchange. Former MTV star Chet Cannon even mocked the CNN correspondent by tweeting that the GOP holds 51 seats and 60 votes are need with a link to a video of NBC’s old “The More You Know” public service announcement.
Earlier this week, Trump kicked the CNN star out of the Oval Office after Acosta badgered the president with racially charged questions. Acosta has made a habit of grandstanding and interrupting when Trump and his surrogates are available to the media. On Tuesday, Acosta yelled, “Mr. President,” three times before finally getting Trump’s attention.
“Did you say that you want more people to come in from Norway? Did you say that you wanted more people from Norway? Is that true Mr. President?” Acosta desperately shouted.
“I want them to come in from everywhere… everywhere. Thank you very much everybody,” Trump responded as Acosta continued to ask condescending questions.
“Just Caucasian or white countries, sir? Or do you want people to come in from other parts of the world… people of color,” Acosta roared.
Trump then pointed directly at Acosta and simply said, “Out!”
Acosta has been among the most outspoken critics of President Trump and is a significant part of CNN Worldwide President Jeff Zucker’s apparent anti-Trump programming strategy. Trump has famously dubbed CNN “fake news” and pointed directly at Acosta and called him by the disparaging moniker in the past.
Last December, Acosta was shut down by White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders when the liberal reporter tried to hijack a press briefing. Acosta told Sanders that journalists make “honest mistakes” but that doesn’t make them “fake news” before attempting a question. Sanders quickly cut him off.
“When journalists make honest mistakes, they should own up to them. Sometimes, and a lot of times, you don’t,” Sanders said as Acosta tried to interrupt.
“I’m sorry, I’m not finished,” she said. “There is a very big difference between making honest mistakes and purposefully misleading the American people... you cannot say it’s an honest mistake when you’re purposely putting out information you know is false.”
Acosta has also gotten into combative arguments with other members of the administration including Senior Policy Adviser Stephen Miller and former Press Secretary Sean Spicer.
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