Trump official called out as anchor blasts 'naked political propaganda' on gov website

NewsNation's Chris Cuomo confronted President Donald Trump's Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Scott Turner, on Wednesday evening over his agency's website putting up an explicitly partisan message attacking Democrats for the government shutdown.

The page, which was first reported earlier this week, stated, "The radical left is going to shut down the government and inflict massive pain on the American people unless they get their $1.5 trillion wish list of demands. The Trump administration wants to keep the government open for the American people."

Democrats are currently refusing to provide votes to fund the government until expiring health care subsidies for millions of people are extended, but Republicans have unified control of the government and Trump has openly boasted about using the shutdown to purge the federal workforce and make unilateral government cuts.

Additionally, Cuomo pointed out to Turner, federal law prohibits the use of government resources for partisan campaigning.

"I'm not used to seeing naked political propaganda on a government website," said Cuomo. "Are you worried about this violating the Hatch Act?"

"No, sir, we're not worried at all," said Turner. "And this is not about propaganda, Chris. This is just about letting the American people know what's going on. What we really need to be talking about is how the government shutdown impacts the American people."

"I want to do that, but this is part of the impact, right?" said Cuomo. "I mean, when you're saying, quote, 'the Radical Left' is shutting it down and they're doing it for a trillion and a half for 'illegals,' that's not true, Secretary Turner. That's why I'm bringing it up. That's why it's propaganda."

Turner stuck to his guns, insisting, "to me, the Democrats and the far left are using this as a distraction to really deflect from what's really important here."