Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough got into a heated argument about the impending sequester on Monday's "Morning Joe," with Brzezinski telling him, "I need to talk."
Scarborough was discussing Republican criticism of Obama, who had said that the sequester was Congress' idea. On Saturday, journalist Bob Woodward argued that the sequester was the "brain child" of Obama advisor Jack Lew and personally approved by the president himself.
Brzezinski declared the debate over who came up with the sequester "silly." Scarborough vehemently disagreed. "Is that silly, when a president intentionally misleads the American people about who came up with this idea in a presidential debate?" he asked.
Brzezinski began to talk, but Scarborough wanted to know if she thought the criticism would be "silly" if George W. Bush were in the same situation. She repeatedly called the argument "silly," but Scarborough continued to press her on the issue.
The two engaged in heated crosstalk, prompting Brzezinski to declare, "Yes, it's silly!"
"Now I'm moving on," she said as Scarborough continued talking. "I am moving on, I said it's silly, can you let me talk for a second please?"
He said they would return to this conversation the next time a Republican doesn't tell the truth since Brzezinski was arguing it "doesn't matter whether the president tells the truth or not —"
Brzezinski said that was not what she said. "The bottom line is the White House came up with the idea," she explained. "Everyone supported it. The point was to come up with a better plan and they didn't and everyone should be ashamed of themselves."
"And quite frankly, arguing over who came up with it is not where we're at right now," Brzezinski continued. "We're four days away from cuts that will hurt people... and both sides out to find out how to cut 85 billion with out doing such drastic damage to some people's lives immediately on Friday and... the president does have a plan on the table that involves chained CPI and about I think 400 billion in Medicare cuts. That's better than the sequester. It is, so the Republicans ought to stop bickering over who came up with this because everyone did, to avoid it, to come up with something better. It's silly."
"I think those are some very cogent points," Scarborough admitted.
Related
Before You Go
