Texas Democrat on CNN: White House Not Happy I Criticized Obama
On Wednesday of this past week, Rep. Henry Cuellar revealed to Fox & Friends that he has received some “angry” calls from the White House, pushing back against his criticism of the way President Barack Obama is handling the crisis on the U.S. border with Mexico. The following night, CNN’s Anderson Cooper pushed Cuellar to expand on how exactly the White House expresses its displeasure with him.
“I understand someone from the White House actually called you up, angry that you were criticizing the president publicly. What did they say?” Cooper asked.
“I thought we had a very constructive, positive conversation,” Cuellar said, downplaying the “angry” factor. Though Obama did not choose the visit the border on his trip this week, the congressman said he still hopes he will return and visit it soon. “I’m not asking for anything else, come down to the boarder and just see it for yourself. If it’s not important, then why is he asking us for $3.7 billion of help? And I want to be supportive of the president on that funding.”
Pushing Cuellar to reveal more, Cooper said, “I know you don’t want to say who called you from the White House, but did they yell at you? You said it was constructive dialogue. Clearly, they are not happy at you being on television talking out.”
“I think they are very smart. They are not going to yell at a member of congress who sits on an appropriations committee,” Cuellar answered, perhaps tossing a subtle threat in the Obama administration’s direction. “There was no yelling, there were conversations.”
Watch video below, via CNN:
[Photo via screengrab]
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