Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confronted ABC host George Stephanopoulos on Sunday over past rhetoric blaming Republicans for government shutdowns.
The Senate voted 14 times in 38 days on a Republican-backed bill to reopen the government. Only three Senate Democrats joined 52 Republicans in voting for the clean continuing resolution, five votes short of the 60 needed to end the shutdown. During a segment on “This Week with George Stephanopoulos,” Stephanopoulos asked whether ending the legislative filibuster was the Trump administration’s preferred way to resolve the current shutdown. Bessent rejected the idea and turned the question around.
“No, George. The best way to do it— and look, you were involved in a lot of these in the ’90s. And, you know, you basically called the Republicans terrorists and, you know, you said that it is not the responsible party that keeps the government closed,” Bessent told Stephanopoulos.
Bessent then argued Democrats now occupy the same position they once condemned.
“And so, what we need is five brave, moderate Democratic senators to cross the aisle, ’cause right now it is 52–3, 52–3: five Democrats can cross the aisle and reopen the government. That’s the best way to do it, George,” Bessent said.
Stephanopoulos pushed back, saying, “I can disagree with you about the history there, but we don’t have a history lesson right now.”
“No, no, no. George, George, George,” Bessent pressed, seeking to quell the host’s attempt to interrupt. “If you want, I’ve got all your quotes here. I got all your quotes here, George.”
During the 1995–96 shutdowns of the federal government, Stephanopoulos served as a senior adviser in the White House administration of Bill Clinton. He helped craft aggressive messaging which painted congressional Republicans as extremists for forcing a government closure. His hard-line communications strategy at the time helped Clinton shift public blame toward the GOP.
“Our strategy was very simple. We couldn’t buckle, and we had to say that they were blackmailing the country to get their way. In order to get their tax cut, they were willing to shut down the government, throw the country into default for the first time in its history and cut Medicare, Social Security, education and the environment just so they could get their way. And we were trying to say that they were basically terrorists, and it worked,” Stephanopoulos told PBS’s “Frontline” in a 2000 interview for its documentary, “The Clinton Years.”
Stephanopoulos previously cut off an Oct. 12 interview with Vice President JD Vance after accusing him of dodging questions about border czar Tom Homan. As Vance began to push back, the ABC host abruptly ended the segment mid-sentence.
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