CNN Anchor Calls Out Trump Pal on DHS Shutdown: ‘What Does Voter ID Have To Do’ With It?

CNN anchor Kasie Hunt called out Trump pal and economist Steven A. Moore over his suggestion that opposition to voter ID is to blame for the DHS shutdown, asking him, “What does voter ID have to do with funding the Department of Homeland Security?”

Trump has been tying the fight over DHS funding to the passage of the so-called “SAVE America Act,” even torpedoing a deal that would have put TSA workers back on the payroll.

On Wednesday’s edition of CNN NewsNight, Hunt talked about the issue with a panel featuring Moore, Neera Tanden, Shermichael Singleton, and Rep. Marilyn Strickland (D-WA).

When Moore tried to blame the impasse on the SAVE Act, Hunt interrupted:

HUNT: This is a blame game where — not a lot of winners.

STEVE MOORE: Let me start by saying, someone who flies a lot. I want to salute the TSA agents who are on the job. They are the heroes in this, no question about it. And they’ve made life in airports at least passable. The villain here, I hate to say this, is Congress.

REP. MARILYN STRICKLAND (D-WA): Do you really hate it? Do you really hate saying that?

MOORE: The villain is Congress. And I’ve lived through 40 — I’ve lived in this town 40 years. I’ve lived through, what, 15 government shutdowns. This is the stupidest shutdown we’ve ever seen. Democrats are saying, we will not allow people to you don’t want voter ID which is something 80 percent of Americans are in favor of, blacks are in favor of, Hispanics are-

(CROSSTALK)

HUNT: But what does voter ID have to do with funding the Department of Homeland Security?

(CROSSTALK)

MOORE: Every group is in favor of it. And — so that we can have honest elections, you’re basically creating mayhem with people.

(CROSSTALK)

MOORE: Why can’t you get the thing open so people aren’t facing — missing their flights, people waiting two and three hours And all we to do is pass legislation, get voter ID, let’s get the government open, and everybody goes away happy.

STRICKLAND: So, I’m going to give you a very truthful answer. There’s one villain in this drama and his name is Donald Trump. Thune had a deal with the Senate.

MOORE: He didn’t shut down. He didn’t shut it down.

STRICKLAND: OK, don’t interrupt me, okay?

MOORE: He didn’t shut down.

STRICKLAND: Thune had a deal that said we’re going to separate ICE and we’re going to pass the Homeland Security bill on its own. And here’s the deal. ICE got $75 billion in your Big Ugly Bill. They don’t need any more money. And then the mayhem that they are doing to American cities, terrorizing citizens, murdering three people, one in L.A., two in Minneapolis, and the general public does not like what ICE is doing. It’s polling poorly.

So, there’s a simple solution. Do what the Majority Leader Thune wanted to do. Separate ICE and CPB, pass the DHS bill, pay TSA workers, pay the Coast Guard, fund FEMA, and then we can talk about ICE later. But the President said, I don’t want to do that. Then he wants to attach a voter suppression bill to that. That is ridiculous. It has nothing to do-

(CROSSTALK)

NEERA TANDEN: If you’re going to raise the SAVE Act, I just need to say this. It is not a voter ID Bill.

MOORE: It’s 80 percent. Every group supports it except Democrats and Congress.

(CROSSTALK)

TANDEN: No, no. It’s not a voter ID bill, okay?

UNKNOWN: It’s a voter suppression bill.

TANDEN: I will say what the bill does. Requiring everyone to have passports or a birth certificate is not voter ID. Most people think voter ID is requirement of driver’s licenses. I think a lot of Democrats are fine with the requirement of driver’s licenses and they voted for that in the Freedom To Vote Act.

Watch above via CNN NewsNight.

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