White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney shot down CNN senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta during the daily press briefing on Friday, schooling the reporter with simple math on why Democrats are needed to keep the government fully funded.
Mulvaney was taking questions from reporters when Acosta pounced on the budget director’s use of the term “Schumer Shutdown” to describe Democratic opposition to passing a short-term spending bill.
“How can it be the ‘Schumer Shutdown’ when Republicans control the White House, the House and the Senate,” asked a bewildered Acosta.
“Come on you know the answer to that as well as anybody,” Mulvaney fired-back. “I have to laugh when people say that […] You know as well as anybody that it takes 60 votes in the Senate to pass an appropriations bill.”
“You know that, right?” pressed Mulvaney. “So, if you only have 51 votes in the Senate, then you have to have Democrat support to fund the government. So that’s the answer to your question.”
Watch Acosta’s brutal education above.