Piers Morgan tells Tennessee Republican: GOP shutdown strategy is 'utter nonsense'

On Tuesday night's edition of CNN's "Piers Morgan Tonight," Morgan accused Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and the Republican Party of talking "utter nonsense" about their role in the shutdown of the federal government and the possibility of the nation defaulting on its fiduciary obligations if the debt ceiling isn't raised.

Morgan began the segment by asking Blackburn about Ted Cruz.

"He's the man of the moment, good or bad, depending on your view," Morgan said. The host said that Cruz appears to be mainly burnishing his credentials in preparation for a run for the White House in 2016. "What's your view of his behavior," he asked Blackburn.

"Well," Blackburn said, "I think that one of the things we all should do right now is not talk about personalities. What we should be talking about is how we make certain that we get this nation on the track to fiscal health and responsibility. And one of things we cannot do is continue borrowing $2 billion a day to keep the lights on."

She waxed on for a moment more about "fiscal responsibility" and the "economic impact of Obamacare" before Morgan interrupted her and said that the repercussions of the GOP's current course of action "might be catastrophic ones for the American people and the global economy."

"At what point," he asked, "does the outright selfish self-interest of Ted Cruz and his colleagues outweigh the American interest and the global economic interest."

"Well, there again," Blackburn responded, "I think that what we don't do is talk about personalities."

"Oh, come off it," scoffed Morgan. "Marsha, Marsha, of course it's about personalities."

Blackburn insisted, "We didn't want a government shutdown. We don't want to default on our debt. What we are doing, what House Republicans have done is we have passed four different continuing resolutions and a budget..."

"Okay, now, let me ask you a question," Morgan said. "Obviously, you didn't want the government shut down, but it is shut down, it already has for two weeks. The debt ceiling and default, are you willing to take that risk?

"Oh, absolutely not," Blackburn replied. "Absolutely not."

"What could you be doing as a party to avoid that?" Morgan asked.

Blackburn said that she and other Republicans in the House are working to resolve the issue and end government bargaining.

"Every economist around here tells us" this kind of borrowing is not sustainable, she insisted.

"No, every economist around here tells me what's going on is utter nonsense," Morgan said, "and should never have been allowed to get this far."

"Well, the borrowing is a part of that nonsense!" Blackburn said.

Watch the video, embedded below via YouTube user Anastasiya Novikova: