U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin appeared on Fox News Sunday and was hit with an unexpected fact-check from host Chris Wallace, who reminded Mnuchin that Republicans had “rejected” President Donald Trump’s call for a payroll tax cut after the Trump administration official blamed Democrats.
During the interview, Wallace noted that Trump had recently threatened to veto a COVID-19 stimulus bill “that did not include a payroll tax cut.”
“That now is gone from all the discussions,” Wallace explained. “Why did the administration cave on that so quickly?”
Mnuchin immediately blamed the omission on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who are both Democrats.
“The Democrats were not going to give us a payroll tax cut,” the Treasury secretary opined.
Wallace interrupted: “Sir, to be fair, it wasn’t just Democrats. There were a number of Republicans who rejected this.”
The Fox News host pointed to GOP Senators John Thune (SD), John Cornyn (TX) and Chuck Grassley (IA) as three examples.
“They all said they had no interest in that,” Wallace continued. “So, you’ve gotten blowback, not just from Democrats, but from some top Republicans as well.”
“There are other Republicans that supported it,” Mnuchin replied. “We have the direct payments, and as you know, the direct payments are a much quicker way of effectively giving everybody a tax cut and it’s much quicker than the payroll tax cut.”
Watch the video below, via Fox News.
