Republican mocks Trump’s slavish loyalty to Fox News: ‘Sean Hannity yelled fire and he fell in line’

Retired Pennsylvania Republican Ryan Costello told MSNBC on Thursday that President Donald Trump "fell in line" after Sean Hannity and other right wing media personalities freaked out about border wall funding, and as a result had backed himself into a corner by shutting down the government.

"The Senate voted 100-0 to pass a clean CR [continuing resolution] and sent it to the House," Costello said, blaming Trump for the shutdown as he laid out the series of unfortunate events. "Sean Hannity and a few other people screamed fire. The president then fell in line behind Sean Hannity. We in the House voted, and I voted for it, for an additional $5 billion and about $8 billion in disaster relief on top of the clean CR. Democrats were not willing to go along because they didn't want any more wall funding in there."

Costello added that the shutdown was completely "foreseeable" and predicted the government would remain closed "until the new Congress is sworn in." Host Craig Melvin brought up the possibility of a presidential veto, and Costello agreed that Trump was in no mood to compromise. But he added that the president likely had no other option.

"Listen, rule number one in negotiation is don't negotiate against yourself," he continued. "The president had Nancy and Chuck in the Oval Office and he negotiated against himself, and now he's in a corner, and I'm not sure how he backs himself out of that corner."

Watch the video below.