Politics

Jim Acosta Asked If Shutdown Caused By Trump’s Lack Of Leadership — Gets Dunked On Hard

Benny Johnson Columnist, Viral Politics
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CNN’s Jim Acosta asked a question during a special White House press briefing Saturday wondering if President Trump’s lack of “leadership” led to the current government shutdown.

Acosta asked legislative affairs director Marc Short how he felt that the one-year anniversary of the president being sworn into office is also the day the government shuts down.

Short said bluntly, “I think it’s disappointing that Congress has chosen to shut down the government and particularly Senate Democrats have on the one-year anniversary.”

Acosta followed up, asking if the shutdown was a “reflection” of the “leadership coming out of the White House?”

In response, Short brought receipts. He said:

It’s reflection of the Democratic Party. They’ve pushed their leadership to say we want something to shut down the government.

They look back and see the largest tax cut in history. They see the repeal of the individual mandate. They look at the regulatory rollback. They look what’s happened with $7 trillion added to the stock markets and see more circuit court judges ever confirmed in one year and a new supreme court justice confirmed.

Those are the things we look at as tremendous progress. They look at the accomplishments and all that this administration has accomplished and their reaction is: ‘Because we can’t beat them, we’re going to shut down the government.’

There was no follow up.

Benny Johnson