President Donald Trump’s former Office of Management and Budget director Mick Mulvaney clashed with progressive internet personality Brian Tyler Cohen Tuesday after being pressed on the president’s claims and Republican policies.
Cohen and the former White House official appeared on Tuesday night’s episode of NewsNation’s “Cuomo” to discuss the government shutdown after Republicans and Democrats missed the deadline to agree on a spending budget.
Republicans voted against a Democratic spending bill that would have extended subsidies for Americans who get their health coverage through the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
“You can ask somebody, who are you going to blame for a shutdown? And they can say the Democrats [or] Republicans. Right now they’re saying Republicans, because Republicans are in charge, but then nobody asks a follow-up question, which is, will it change the way you vote next November? And it never does,” Mulvaney said on Tuesday.
The debate grew more tense when Cohen pressed Mulvaney on the recent GOP megabill, which favors tax cuts for the wealthy at the expense of Medicaid and is predicted to further drive up the national debt.
“When we talk about this idea that the government is too big, that there’s too much spending — I mean, Mick, it’s your party,” Cohen said. “It’s Donald Trump that is adding trillions and trillions and trillions to the debt because they want to give themselves tax cuts.”
Mulvaney dismissed Cohen, saying, “Tax cuts for the rich, yeah, OK, yeah, we had this conversation, all right.”
“You can scoff it off, but it doesn’t change the math,” Cohen replied.
The internet personality pressed further about the bill, but when given an opportunity to respond, Mulvaney said, “No, I’m not gonna talk about COVID and the bipartisan bills of the past.”
“Look, if we want to talk about the government shutdown, we can, but I’m not gonna debate a podcaster,” he added.
“You’re not gonna debate when I give you the numbers, and I mean, it looks worse on you than it does on me because I gave you the numbers right there and you just don’t want to answer the question,” Cohen fired back.
Another talking point where the two clashed was Trump’s claim that the Democrats are to blame for the shutdown. The president has been pushing the notion that Democrats want to give health care to undocumented immigrants.
However, despite what MAGA officials claim, undocumented immigrants are largely ineligible for federally funded health coverage and the Democrats’ budget proposal does not make them eligible.
Cohen confronted Mulvaney once again, asking him if he agrees that “not a single dime of ACA subsidies goes towards undocumented immigrants.”
Mulvaney did not give Cohen a straight answer and, when pressed, snapped at the internet personality.
“Listen, we don’t do this on this show,” Mulvaney said. “I don’t know if you’ve ever been on here before, but we don’t talk over — we’re not here to yell at each other. I’m not going to do this anymore.”
“There you go, that’s the answer right there, can’t even acknowledge objective reality,” Cohen said.