CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins And New York Times Correspondent and CNN analyst Maggie Haberman roasted ex-president Donald Trump about his interference in the showdown to shut down the government.
Trump waded into the battle over spending bills to prevent a government shutdown, writing on his Truth Social account:
A very important date is approaching at the end of the month. Republicans in Congress can and must defund the armed government of corrupt Joe Biden, which refuses to close the border and treats half the country as enemies of the state. This is also the last chance to defund these political prosecutions against me and other patriots. They failed at the debt limit, but they must not fail now. Use the power of the wallet and defend the country!
On Thursday evening editing from CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins Haberman and Collins mocked the idea that Trump cared about government spending or debt rather than a range of unrelated issues:
COLLINS: I mean, what do you think, Maggie, of Trump getting involved in this thing when he came forward last night and said, “Republicans shouldn’t pass this short-term bill that Kevin McCarthy did, and they tried to get the Republicans behind them.” ? I mean, he’s hopeful that it would influence his investigation. But as the congressman made clear, this will not be the case.
MAGGIE HABERMAN: No, it won’t. And I think realistically, Donald Trump was told that by advisers. I think he is aware of this.
He’s always done things for Kevin McCarthy that make life a little more complicated. Kevin McCarthy has, at various times, done things that have angered now-former President Trump, including not endorsing him, which we know of.
So I don’t think it’s surprising that he’s twisting the knife here. I think Trump is much more aligned with these members who, as Alyssa rightly says, talk about fiscal responsibility, and some of them clearly believe in that, but a lot of them talk about other things.
And that’s a little different from the early days of, say, the Tea Party, when that first wave came, when it was actually a lot more about spending.
COLLINS: Yes.
HABERMAN: Now it’s about all sorts of other things. And Trump cares about all sorts of other things. Expenses are more theoretical.
COLLINS: Yes, it certainly isn’t. He is not obsessed with debt.
HABERMAN: Let’s say he’s not a fiscal conservative.
