Mick Mulvaney and the Reasonable Nutjobs

In a wide-ranging conversation spanning from his time working in the Trump White House, to his early days as a leader in the House Freedom Caucus (which we learned was supposed to be called the “Reasonable Nutjob Caucus), Mick Mulvaney talks with Sarah and Steve about his life in politics. During the conversation, Mulvaney opines on John Boehner’s new book, what being chief of staff is actually like, whether or not he would have voted to impeach Donald Trump after January 6 and more. Plus, stick around for some tough questions from his fellow South Carolinian Trey Gowdy.

Mulvaney:

On federal spending: “Spending is a real tough issue for my party because while most folks will at least pay lip service to some type of fiscal conservatism, many of them don’t believe it. The rarest thing in Washington, D.C., in the last 10 years, probably the last 30, has been a true fiscal conservative. … The truth of the matter is that the first two years of the Trump administration, when the Republicans had the House and the Senate, we raised spending faster than the last couple of years of the Obama administration. … There’s a reason that we … default to the social issues, to the Dr. Seuss issues, to the border issues, and stuff, because it’s something that we sort of can all agree on. Spending is something that this party is going to have to reconcile within itself because it is a house divided on spending right now.”