Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney took a shot at Jim Acosta during a Thursday briefing on the Consolidated Appropriations Act, even though the CNN White house correspondent wasn’t even in the room.

Acosta’s fellow CNN-er, Jeff Zeleny, first asked Mulvaney “what happened to the Republican Party?”

“The Republican Party now controls all branches of government,” he said referencing criticism of the bill by congressional conservatives. “Your own colleagues at the Freedom Caucus called this an insult to the American taxpayer.”

“I noticed that Mr. Acosta isn’t here to ask that question,” Mulvaney responded. “Do you really expect me to give you the same answer I gave him?”

“We don’t control all of the government when you have to have 60 votes in the Senate, and there’s only 51 Republicans,” he continued. “We do not control the Senate under the current rules. Therefore, we have to give the Democrats something.”

“This is the same discussion that you and I had several months ago.”

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