Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent challenged ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on Sunday over his past comments blaming Republicans for government shutdowns, drawing a sharp exchange during an interview on “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.”
The discussion centered on the ongoing federal shutdown and the Senate’s repeated failure to pass a Republican-backed continuing resolution that would reopen the government.
Over 38 days, the Senate voted 14 times on the proposal.
Fifty-two Republicans and three Democrats supported the measure, leaving it five votes short of the 60 needed to end the stalemate.
Stephanopoulos asked whether the Trump administration would consider supporting the elimination of the legislative filibuster as a way to resolve the impasse.
Bessent immediately rejected the idea and turned the question back on Stephanopoulos.
“No, George. The best way to do it— and look, you were involved in a lot of these in the ’90s. And, you know, you basically called the Republicans terrorists and, you know, you said that it is not the responsible party that keeps the government closed,” Bessent said.
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Bessent argued that Democrats now find themselves in the same position they once criticized.
“And so, what we need is five brave, moderate Democratic senators to cross the aisle, because right now it is 52–3, 52–3. Five Democrats can cross the aisle and reopen the government. That’s the best way to do it, George,” he added.
Stephanopoulos responded, “I can disagree with you about the history there, but we don’t have a history lesson right now.”
Bessent persisted, saying, “No, no, no. George, George, George. If you want, I’ve got all your quotes here. I got all your quotes here, George.”
“I went back, read your book. So you got one purchase on Amazon this week. And that’s very much what you said.”
In 2001, George Stephanopoulos admitted to PBS Frontline that the Clinton Administration worked to paint Congress as “blackmailing the country to get their way” via government shutdown and characterized them as “basically terrorists.”
In 2025, he calls these quotes “a… pic.twitter.com/UhpWgl2emj
— Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (@SecScottBessent) November 9, 2025
The on-air exchange referenced Stephanopoulos’s history during the 1995–1996 government shutdowns, when he served as a senior adviser in President Bill Clinton’s White House.
At the time, Stephanopoulos was instrumental in shaping the administration’s public messaging against congressional Republicans, who were led by then-Speaker Newt Gingrich.
In a 2000 interview with PBS’s “Frontline” for its documentary “The Clinton Years,” Stephanopoulos acknowledged the Clinton administration’s strategy.
“Our strategy was very simple. We couldn’t buckle, and we had to say that they were blackmailing the country to get their way. In order to get their tax cut, they were willing to shut down the government, throw the country into default for the first time in its history and cut Medicare, Social Security, education and the environment just so they could get their way. And we were trying to say that they were basically terrorists, and it worked,” he said at the time.
Bessent’s comments highlighted what he characterized as a shift in the political narrative surrounding shutdowns.
While Democrats previously accused Republicans of holding the government hostage to achieve policy goals, Bessent argued that the current situation reverses that dynamic, with Democrats now blocking a clean continuing resolution that would reopen the government.
The interview followed another tense moment for Stephanopoulos earlier in the month.
On October 12, he abruptly ended an interview with Vice President J.D. Vance after accusing the vice president of dodging questions about Border Czar Tom Homan.
As Vance began to respond, Stephanopoulos cut the segment short mid-sentence, drawing criticism from viewers who accused the host of bias.
Bessent’s appearance on ABC further illustrated the growing tension between the Trump administration and major media outlets as negotiations continue to break the deadlock in Congress.
With only a handful of Senate Democrats needed to reach the 60-vote threshold, the administration has continued urging bipartisan cooperation to reopen the government.
