Ahead of the partial government shutdown on Monday, GOP Reps. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) clashed with CNN anchor Ashleigh Banfield about the effort to defund Obamacare and the looming shutdown. After a series of biased questions from Banfield, Rep. Rohrabacher finally demanded some accountability from the anchor asking, “Whose bidding are you doing?”
“While we're doing that, the great, great shows, Ashleigh Banfield will be on – I forget what network she's even on now. Everybody just keeps changing networks all the time. Is she on CNN? Okay,” Glenn said on radio this morning. “So she was on CNN and she talked to Dana Rohrabacher last night, and listen to this exchange. It's amazing.”
BANFIELD: Why connect the funding of the government, the entire U.S. economy, why bring it to this brink? Why not do it at all the other times ‑‑
“Stop. Listen to this. This is a fair objective question? Why would you bring the entire U.S. economy? Ashleigh, honey, and I say that with all the respect that honeys deserve. Honey, the government is not the entire U.S. economy,” Glenn said. “That's the problem. They've just absorbed a third of the economy. The economy is private business. Why would you stop the entire U.S. economy? “
BANFIELD: All of the over 100‑plus congresses have been able to fund the government.
“Stop,” Glenn interjected. “Not true. Not true. 19 shutdowns since 1970. 19 government shutdowns.”
ROHRABACHER: Well, have you addressed that to the Senate? I mean, we've already offered a compromise. You're acting ‑‑ you're telling our listeners that we Republicans are holding this up and the government's going to shut down. We have actually reached out to the Democrats with a compromised position.
BANFIELD: Congressman, that's not fair. Don't you dare put this back on me. You know ‑‑
“Is she the representative of the Democrats,” Pat asked.
“He didn't put it on you, sweetie pie. There hasn't been a compromise on anything! He's saying, ‘We didn't shut it down. We compromised. Give us one more year because none of this is ready,’” Glenn said. “We're not shutting it down. We're delaying yet another year. So how are they putting it back on you exactly?”
BANFIELD: No, no. You know full well you attached ObamaCare and defunding it. You can't make something up. You cannot make something up.
“She just proved herself wrong again. Did you hear what she said,” Glenn asked. “You have attached to the bill that you have defunded Obamacare, and you can't make something up. Well, you just did. That's not what happened. That's what Ted Cruz was fighting for… What they've done is say, ‘Delay it for a year and stop the taxes, which is bipartisan. Everybody agrees, no more taxes on things like pacemakers. No more taxes on that because you're going to price them out of reach of people.”
ROHRABACHER: Are you here to give us a tirade?
BANFIELD: You can't make up that, sir. You passed a bill back to the Senate to defund ObamaCare.
ROHRABACHER: Excuse me. The listeners understand this is the same thing we're putting up with, with the Senate. We offer a compromise; they won't even talk to us about it. You won't even talk to us about it. Whose bidding are you doing?
“Dana, great question,” Pat said. “She's absolutely doing the bidding.”
“She sees herself as part of the Democratic Senate. She sees herself as a defender of one side of the aisle and that's, of course, why you can't get anywhere in that interview,” Stu explained. “I'm glad he challenging her on it and not sit there and try to treat it like it was an interview because it wasn't. She was just screaming at him.”
Watch the entire exchange below: