‘I Gotta Stop You There’: Kaitlan Collins Cuts Off House Republican Amid Tense Interview

An interview between CNN host Kaitlan Collins and Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) became tense on Wednesday, resulting in Collins cutting off Lawler before he could say goodbye.

At the beginning of the interview, Collins and Lawler repeatedly shouted over one another as Lawler blamed Democrats for the crisis at the southern border. Despite Lawler’s protests, Collins then shifted the topic to Lawler’s former New York Republican colleague, George Santos, who was expelled from the House in December.

After Collins asked Lawler whether he was on the group chat this week where Santos called his former colleagues “fucking idiots” and said he looked “very forward” to them losing their seats, Lawler replied that he was.

Asked whether he responded to Santos’ message, Lawler said, “No, I didn’t because George Santos is a waste of time and so I really don’t care what he has to say. He’s no longer a member of Congress for good reason, and we move on. But I want to go back to the border because that actually is important, unlike George Santos.”

Lawler then said:

Democrats had three years under Joe Biden to actually do something about the border. They chose not to. Senate Democrats chose not to act until December of last year to actually start negotiating a bill. Here’s the bottom line and the way Congress works, because the media seems to have this position that whatever the Senate passes everybody has to accept. There are two houses within Congress and you actually have to negotiate.

“Congressman, unfortunately I gotta stop you there,” interrupted Collins, as Lawler continued to speak. “Respectfully, congressman. Respectfully, congressman. I think both– I think both parts of Congress bear blame for this. No one has done anything to fix the immigration system.”

Collins then shut off Lawler’s feed, thanked him for appearing on the show, and cut to commercials.

Watch above via CNN.