A member of President Donald Trump's cabinet lost his cool in front of hundreds of thousands of CNN viewers Sunday morning when faced with tough questions from anchor Dana Bash.
U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum snapped at Bash as she questioned him about a sensitive issue for the president — his failed $14 million effort to turn the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool "American flag blue."
"Mr. Secretary," Bash said, "you and I talked about this last month—"
"And we're still talking about it!" Burgum interrupted.
Tensions had mounted after Bash quizzed Burgum about a peeling liner that allowed algae to return and ruin the effect of a perfectly blue pool. Specifically, Bash wanted details about claims that vandalism was to blame and not the Trump administration.
"It peeled off," Bash said. "Why did that happen?"
"It didn't peel off," Burgum snapped back. "There was vandalism. There were box cutters."
Bash was cynical.
"You're a hundred percent sure that what happened with the liner was vandalism?" she asked. "You can prove it?"
Burgum stammered, then said, "Absolutely, we can."
He then referenced photographs that would be used as evidence, and Bash cut in again.
"Photographs of people cutting a three-hundred or three-hundred-fifty-foot gash in the bottom of the reflecting pool?"
That was Burgum's cue to blame the media.
"I'm not sure why you and others and the media think you want to question the whole thing," Burgum said. "It would never just peel off. This is a strong material."