Scott Bessent Confronts George Stephanopoulos With His Own Shutdown Playbook From the Clinton Era
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent turned the tables on former Clinton aide and ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos during a fiery Sunday interview, invoking Stephanopoulos’ own past rhetoric to spotlight the hypocrisy of Democrats amid the ongoing government shutdown.
Bessent appeared on This Week to discuss the nearly 40-day-long shutdown, which has dragged on over Democrats’ refusal to budge on Obamacare subsidy extensions that were originally set to expire after pandemic-related funding lapses. Stephanopoulos opened by asking whether Trump’s push to end the filibuster was the right solution to break the gridlock.
But Bessent was ready with receipts.
“No, George,” Bessent said, “the best way to do it — and look, you were involved in a lot of these in the ’90s. You basically called the Republicans terrorists, and you said it’s not the responsible party that keeps the government closed. So what we need is five brave moderate Democratic Senators to cross the aisle. Right now it’s 52 to 3. Five Democrats can cross the aisle and reopen the government. That’s the best way to do it, George.”
Stephanopoulos tried to steer the conversation back to the present, smiling and offering to “disagree” on the history, but Bessent wasn’t letting it slide.
“I’ve got all your quotes here,” Bessent warned. “I read your book, so you got one purchase on Amazon this week.”
As Stephanopoulos continued to dodge, Bessent reminded viewers what Stephanopoulos once proudly admitted in a 2000 PBS interview, when he was asked about the Clinton administration’s strategy during the 1995 shutdowns. Stephanopoulos said at the time:
“Our strategy was very simple. We couldn’t buckle, and we had to say that they were blackmailing the country to get their way… And we were trying to say that they were basically terrorists, and it worked.”
When @SecScottBessent reminded George Stephanopoulos “you were involved in a lot of these in the ’90s. And you basically called the Republicans terrorists and, you know, you said that it is not the responsible party that keeps the government closed,” Stephanopoulos tried to shut… pic.twitter.com/LhcfQ2KHq9
— Brent Baker ???? ?? (@BrentHBaker) November 9, 2025
That interview described Clinton’s refusal to negotiate with Speaker Newt Gingrich’s GOP Congress — the very same strategy Democrats now blame Republicans for adopting. Bessent used Stephanopoulos’ own language to make the case that the left has no ground to stand on after years of applauding government standoffs as political leverage.
Bessent also hammered the point that the shutdown could end today — if just a handful of moderate Democrats voted with the GOP majority to pass a clean funding bill.
His challenge came as President Trump and GOP leaders refuse to back down from calls to end Obamacare subsidies, overhaul spending priorities, and possibly eliminate the Senate filibuster altogether to break the legislative blockade.
Meanwhile, Democrats continue to insist that any spending package must include a full extension of the 2022 health care subsidies — originally created as a temporary pandemic measure — while quietly hoping to use the standoff to their political advantage in the 2026 midterms.
But Bessent’s appearance reminded the nation that when Democrats were in power, they not only embraced shutdown tactics, they weaponized them — even calling Republicans “terrorists” for refusing to fold. Now, with the shoe on the other foot, they’re suddenly demanding compromise.
Stephanopoulos didn’t deny his past remarks, but tried to sidestep them. For Bessent, the exchange was a clear victory — exposing the very double standard that has defined Democratic shutdown politics for decades.