Mulvaney Gets Salty When Burnett Asks Why He Wanted a Clean Debt Ceiling Raise in 2019 But Not Now: ‘That’s How Washington Works’

Mick Mulvaney got defensive after Erin Burnett asked why he once supported a clean debt ceiling raise while working in the Trump administration, but not now.

The U.S. hit its self-imposed debt limit on Thursday, though the Department of the Treasury is taking measures to fulfill the country’s debt obligations. Those moves will exhaust sometime around early June.

If Congress doesn’t raise the debt limit by then, the U.S. will default on its loan obligations for the first time.

House Republicans, who narrowly control the chamber, said won’t raise the limit unless the Biden administration agrees to spending cuts.

Mulvaney, who served as director of the Office of Management and Budget and later as White House chief of staff, appeared on Friday’s edition of OutFront on CNN.

“You were the OMB director for President Trump in 2019,” Burnett noted. “Debt ceiling comes around, you all wanted to raise it.”

Congress – which in 2019 saw divided control of the chambers – ultimately struck a deal to suspend the debt ceiling until 2021, when it was raised again.

She aired a clip of former President Donald Trump calling on Congress to raise the debt ceiling with no strings attached.

“A few weeks later, you announced that you and Trump’s advisers all agreed that a debt ceiling hike should not be tied to any other policy proposals,” she said. “You wanted a clean debt ceiling raise. Yet, this time I saw that you tweeted that you support the House Republicans who are insisting on spending cuts in exchange for a debt ceiling deal. What’s changed?”

“I think if you’ve got a situation like you have now,” he replied, “where the Republicans are in charge of the House and the Democrats are in charge of the Senate and the White House, doesn’t it just make sense that there would be some sort of compromise?”

As Mulvaney continued, Burnett interrupted him, which led to some crosstalk.

“I just want to make sure I understand what you’re saying,” she said. “You’re saying that this is about politics. When there’s divided [government], you’re fine with negotiation, but not when it’s all one party. So it’s not actually about the debt ceiling being sacred and debt being sacred.”

“That’s how Washington works, Erin,” he replied. “That’s how it worked for the last two years and no one seemed to complain about it. That’s just how Washington has always worked. You’ve got a situation here where you can do something like Barack Obama did back in 2011 and I think it was ’13 as well where he gave a little bit. The Democrats got a lot and we increased the debt ceiling.”

Watch above via CNN.