Fox Business host Neil Cavuto fiercely criticized Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin’s suggestion that soaring claims for unemployment benefits are “not relevant” at this stage of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Almost 3.3 million Americans ― a record number ― filed for unemployment last week as employers nationwide shuttered businesses in a bid to stop the spread of the virus that has forced almost one-fifth of the world’s population into lockdown.

Mnuchin told CNBC Thursday morning he thought “these numbers right now are not relevant, and you know, whether they’re bigger or smaller in the short-term.”

Cavuto fired back at the tone of Mnuchin’s comments on his show, “Cavuto Coast to Coast.”

“Well, Mr. Secretary, they are relevant to those people,” he said. “Those are three-and-a-quarter million Americans that don’t have jobs anymore. Now, you might look at them as an aberration or whatever. But they matter to those people because, you know what? They don’t have jobs.”

“Tone is everything, and I think that’s a very dismissive, condescending, just a dumbass tone,” Cavuto added.

Fox Business correspondent Charlie Gasparino agreed. “I mean, it is just horrible,” he said.

“You’ve got to choose your words very carefully,” Cavuto later said. “They are human beings who are desperately looking for something.”

Check out the clip here: