There is nothing like getting the drop on someone from the mainstream media, at least in the eyes of Donald Trump or one of his top officials.
That just happened after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent obliterated George Stephanopoulos during a Sunday show interview.
Bessent called out a previous statement made by Stephanopoulos, and when the longtime pundit and anchor denied the assertion, the Trump administration official came armed with an exact quote to back up his claim.
When former President Bill Clinton was in office, he and Republicans were in a standoff over federal funding, and the government was actually shut down twice during the latter part of the year.
The first shutdown took place from Nov. 15 through Nov. 19, 1995. Then it happened again from Dec. 16, 1995, through Jan. 6, 1996.
Clinton vetoed an initial spending bill passed by the GOP Congress because he opposed spending cuts that were put in place by then-Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (R-GA).
Between the two shutdowns, more than one million workers were furloughed.
At the time of the shutdown, Stephanopoulos was a high-profile figure inside the Clinton administration.
He served as the White House communications director for about six months before he was elevated to become a senior adviser to the president.
Discussing one of the Clinton shutdowns, he addressed the Democrats' approach, explaining, "Our strategy was very simple. We couldn’t buckle, and we had to say that they were blackmailing the country to get their way.”
He continued, “In order to get their tax cut, they were willing to shut down the government, throw the country into default for the first time in its history and cut Medicare, Social Security, education and the environment just so they could get their way. And we were trying to say that they were basically terrorists, and it worked.”
Bessent was on ABC’s This Week on Sunday, which is hosted by Stephanopoulos, and he was getting grilled over the current government shutdown.
Bessent stated, "The best way to do it -- and look, you were involved in a lot of these in the ’90s. And, you know, you basically called the Republicans terrorists and, you know, you said that it is not the responsible party that keeps the government closed. And so, what we need is five brave, moderate Democratic senators to cross the aisle, because right now it is 52–3, 52–3. Five Democrats can cross the aisle and reopen the government. That’s the best way to do it, George."
The news anchor shot back, "I can disagree with you about the history there, but we don’t have a history lesson right now," to which Bessent told him he had all his quotes from the time in question locked and loaded. Stephanopoulos then accused him of mischaracterizing history, which he did not.
You just have to love it when liberals have their words tossed back in their face, and they try to deny or twist the facts to make them look better. But it also goes to show that Democrats have been throwing around nasty rhetoric about Republicans for at least three decades.
