Mike Lawler on His Heated Clash with Hakeem Jeffries Over Gov’t Shutdown: ‘He Was Unhinged,’ and Unprofessional

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
BARTIROMO: “Just incredible. You speak about your Democrat colleagues, you made headlines this week when he had a heated exchange with house minority leader Hakeem Jeffries over the government shutdown. You pressed him to sign on to a bipartisan bill extending to enhance ObamaCare subsidies. Here is a bit of that, watch.”

Jeffries: “You’re making a show of this. You’re embarrassing yourself.”

LAWLER: “Didn’t you want all the Republicans to be here? You wanted Republicans to be here I am here. You can pass in aca extension extension.”

Jeffries: “You’re knocking to talk to me and talk over me. Because you don’t want to hear what I have to say. Keep your mouth shut.”

BARTIROMO: “Keep your mouth shut, does he think remarks like that will help move the needle on negotiations.”

LAWLER: “He was unhinged he started yelling out of the gate and stuttering and stammering and really acting completely unprofessionally throughout the entire exchange. I was pointing out if you are saying this is an about healthcare in 14 of my Republican colleagues are signed onto a bipartisan bill to extend aca subsidies for one year so we can address the larger issue of healthcare cost to America. Since ObamaCare took effect, healthcare premiums have skyrocketed over 60% increase and this was a bill that was supposed to make healthcare affordable for Americans. The only way Democrats seem to think it’s affordable if you add subsidies to it. There’s a larger problem that has to be dealt with. I agree in the immediate we don’t want to see a premium spike on Americans so that’s why I signed onto legislation to do that. All they’re doing is hurting the American people and hurting our military in our federal employees and hurting the Americans and rely on the social safety net. It has to stop, but of the government, past the clean CR and let’s deal with the subsidies.”