The message from the White House over the government shutdown is clear. Donald Trump is putting full blame on the Democratic Party, but at least one host on Fox News is not letting the administration get away with it.
Fox News on Trump
Once the calendar flipped at midnight last Friday, the government shutdown was in full effect. For the first time since 2013, Republicans and Democrats were unable to strike a deal on time to fund the government, leaving many questions unanswered. In the current debate, Democrats have pushed to extend the DACA program which allows illegal immigrants brought to the United States as children the right to remain in the country.
On the Republican side, the president and Congressional lawmakers are calling for increased border security, as well as additional money allocated to help fund the president's favorite pet project in the form a southern border wall. Following the shutdown, both sides have pointed fingers, with many calling Trump and the GOP out over their apparent hypocrisy for putting the blame on former President Barack Obama during the aforementioned 2013 shutdown. These issues and more were discussed during a Fox News interview on January 21.
Joining Fox News host Chris Wallace on Sunday morning was White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney who did his best to spin the blame for the government shutdown onto the Democrats, but not before being called out on his talking point.
"If President Obama was responsible then, isn’t President Trump responsible now?" Wallace asked, in reference to Republicans blaming the previous shutdown on the sitting president at the time.
OMB Director Mick Mulvaney tells Chris he believes that there’s a chance the government shutdown gets solved... https://t.co/G5G1eaeiCl
— FoxNewsSunday (@FoxNewsSunday) January 21, 2018
Mick Mulvaney replied that Barack Obama was rooting for a shutdown back in 2013, but insisted that Donald Trump has worked hard to put a deal together.
"He didn’t have a bipartisan meeting with congressional leaders yesterday," Wallace pointed out, contradicting Mulvaney's narrative about the commander in chief.
Double down
"You are blaming the Democrats," Chris Wallace went on to add, before calling Mike Mulvaney out on his hypocrisy by saying, "you supported holding the government hostage (in 2013) over the issue of Obamacare." Wallace then ran a video clip to back up his criticism of the White House over Mulvaney's comments during the last shutdown.
After Mulvaney attempted to clarify, Wallace set the record straight and said, "Both them then and you now are willing to shut down the government because they support or oppose a policy."
Mulvaney never saw it coming and accused Wallace of "splitting hairs." It didn't go over well. https://t.co/Ec2a0epBbu
— Raw Story (@RawStory) January 21, 2018
Where America stands
As both Democrats and Republicans blame each other, recent polling shows where the American people stand on the government shutdown. According to the most recent POLITICO/Morning Consult poll, 41 percent of Americans blame Republicans for the shutdown, with 36 percent putting the blame on the Democrats. The results were partisan based on the party affiliation of those polled, but among independents, 34 percent thought it was Republican fault for letting the government shut down, compared to just 24 percent who pointed a finger at the Democrats.
