Fox Guest Fights Bob Beckel: Gov’t Shutdown ‘Did Tea Party a Huge Favor’
Former George W Bush aide Brad Blakeman and Fox News’ The Five co-host Bob Beckel went at it over the government shutdown Tuesday morning, with each arguing that the other’s side would absorb the lion’s share of blame over the current impasse.
“You guys grabbed defeat out of the jaws of victory,” Beckel said. “You had Obama on the run. You had us on the run. You had independents on your side. Now 5-1 independents think Republicans will be blamed fo the shutdown. What are you doing? If you have a shovel digging a hole that deep, give me the shovel.”
“Initially there’s gonna be enough blame to go around,” Blakeman replied. “But as ObamaCare does not pan out to be what the president promised it to be…the blame is going to go to Democrats, Republicans are going to say we told you so. At the end of the day, you guys were banking on the tea party being marginalized for 2014, I think you just did the tea party a huge favor.”
“That was a great effort on your part,” Beckel said. “As good a spin as you could do this morning.”
“What’s he’s saying is you want to demonize the tea party,” host Bill Hemmer said.
“They’re demonizing themselves,” Beckel responded. “In the long run, you could turn out to be right, but right now you’re trying to turn chicken stuff into chicken salad, and it ain’t working. The American people are blaming Republicans, and they should. There are extremists in the Republican Party that are responsible for it that John Boehner cannot control. If it were up to you, Brad Blakeman, you would have had this deal done last night before midnight, easily.”
Watch the full segment below, via Fox News:
[Image via screengrab]
