‘Enough with This!’ Jessica Tarlov Waves Off Bret Baier in Tense Exchange About Who’d Be to Blame for Potential Shutdown

BAIER: “Jessica, that — that letter from the OMB director is essentially that, a threat that, this shutdown happens, you’re going to fire people that the discretionary funding doesn’t cover.”

TARLOV: “And Donald Trump made the same threat when he was speaking earlier today as well. He said we can do a lot of really bad things. We can do things that they don’t want us to do. And yes, Democrats don’t want people to get fired and Democrats don’t want people to lose their healthcare. But I think the Republican Party is trying to act like they have the upper hand and they just don’t on the merits. First of all, 45 percent of Americans would blame them versus 32 percent that would blame the Democrats. And we saw what happens when you give Republicans the votes. We did that in March. And they have governed by and for themselves. They think they don’t have to negotiate, when typically on these kinds of things, on CRs, you do that because you don’t have the 60 votes to do it.”

BAIER: “I hear the polls. I hear what you’re saying, but this is kind of simple. You know, this is a plain, fund the government —“

TARLOV: “But it’s not — it’s not because it —“

BAIER: “— continuing resolution.”

TARLOV: “But it’s a clean resolution —“

BAIER: “Either you do it or you don’t.”

TARLOV: “— inclusive of these cuts. And there are smart Republicans like Josh Hawley, even Senator Thune has said that he’s been concerned about this. When you look at what’s going to happen with 114 percent hikes on these ACA premiums, that affects Democrats just as much as Republicans, and there are a lot of Republicans on ObamaCare. Mike Johnson and J.D. Vance —“

BAIER: “But it doesn’t stop until the end of the year. So you — you fund the government —“

TARLOV: “Enough with this!”

BAIER: “— and then you — and then you argue the point.”

TARLOV: “But who is to say that they’re going to sit down and negotiate with us afterwards? They came out of that meeting. Trump is posting racist AI videos saying I don’t need to deal with them at all. Mike Johnson, J.D. Vance are lying about what Democrats are asking, saying we want to fund healthcare for illegals, which is impossible and doesn’t happen, it is impossible. They’re saying they want to cut $50 billion from rural hospitals. They took $137 billion out and they gave us back $50 billion and said that it’s our problem.”