GOP congressman forced to eat his words on CNN after claiming Pelosi 'caved' on wall funding
House Ways and Mean Republican Tom Reed (NY) had an unpleasant run-in with facts Wednesday courtesy of CNN's Brianna Keilar, who smacked down his attempts to claim House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had 'caved' on funding for President Donald Trump's wall.
Keilar noted that while Trump's shutdown had backfired badly, resulting in even less border security funding than the Senate compromise bill he'd walked away from, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy was "trying to spin this" as not only a win for his party, but a loss for the Democrats.
McCarthy "says the Democrats caved on the president's demands, but just listening to you as you look at those numbers, you're saying 'don't let perfect be the enemy of the good,'" she said. Republicans "could have gotten more before. Do you think that this is Democrats caving?"
"I think there is some movement on the Democratic side, yes," Reed said. "Nancy Pelosi famously said 'not one dollar for a barrier and quote, unquote wall', but there's border barrier money in there -- "
"No, she said 'for the wall,'" shot back Keilar. "Congressman, in fairness, let's be honest. She said 'not one dollar for the wall.'"
Reed began stammering and laughing nervously, as Keilar continued to hammer him on the "distinction."
"She didn't say 'no, not a dollar for the barrier,'" she continued. "That didn't roll off her tongue as nicely as 'no money for the wall.'"
"That's how childish this is," admitted Reed. "At the end of the day, if you do believe in border security and if you do believe in securing American citizens' lives, this is what we have to do, we have to compromise for the greater good."
Watch the video below.