POLITICO Screen grab Blackburn: Roberts 'inappropriate'

Rep. Marsha Blackburn and MSNBC host Thomas Roberts traded barbs in an on-air spat over Obamacare, with the Tennessee Republican calling the TV host’s line of questioning “incredibly inappropriate.”

“Congresswoman, let me ask you though, when it comes to Obamacare: Do you hate Obamacare more than you love your country?” Roberts asked Blackburn on Tuesday during his MSNBC show.


“I think that comments like that that you are making are just incredibly inappropriate,” Blackburn responded.

The argument continued for several minutes without either Roberts or Blackburn giving any ground.

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“You don’t think it’s incredibly inappropriate to shut down our government?” Roberts said. “You took the government hostage through the shutdown and all the American people, you’re walking them to a cliff, the economy, and you’re going to push them over one by one based on the fact that you don’t like the ACA.”

“Listen to yourself,” Blackburn said. “Just listen to the way you’re sounding. My goodness. We didn’t want a government shutdown. We don’t want a government default.”

After Roberts read comments back to Blackburn in which she praised Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s efforts to defund Obamacare, Roberts accused Blackburn and her colleagues of planning a shutdown since August.

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“What you are doing is so inappropriate,” Blackburn retorted.

The exchange ended when Roberts had to cut to live remarks by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on a collapsing Republican House proposal to end the shutdown and lift the debt ceiling.