Democratic Congressman Schools ‘Fox & Friends’ Hosts

Perhaps the bookers over at Fox News decided to get Rep. Adam Smith, one of 16 Democrats who voted against the fiscal cliff deal, on the morning show “Fox & Friends” on Wednesday because they thought the congressman would agree with the program’s hosts. If that was the case, they were sorely mistaken.

The Democratic congressman ended up clashing with the hosts beginning with Steve Doocy once he started to question President Obama’s leadership when it came to cutting spending during the fiscal cliff negotiations.

“I don’t actually agree with that,” Smith said. “The president put on the table cuts to entitlements. He put on the table the chained CPI issue, among other issues.”

Doocy countered that it was a “nonstarter for a lot of people in your party,” at which point Smith began laughing at the “Fox & Friends” host.

“Here is the thing,” Smith shot back. “You can say, ‘well, he’s not showing leadership.’ But now what you’re saying is he showed leadership, but nobody else was willing to.”

When Brian Kilmeade then proceeded to bring up the Paul Ryan budget plan, the congressman had to explain that “a budget is not an appropriations bill, Brian.” He added that, “In terms of specific spending cuts, the president had actually put more on the table during this last negotiation than the so-called fiscal conservatives leading the House.”

Kilmeade responded, “Really? Because I don’t know anything that he wanted to cut besides defense,” revealing that he clearly had not been paying attention to the conversation a minute earlier.

“I just told you,” Smith calmly replied.

For the record, Smith said he opposed the deal because he’s “concerned about the long-term fiscal health of the country and concerned sequestration wasn’t dealt with.”

Off the record, Smith may have wished he had chosen to sleep in instead of doing the interview.

— Posted by Tracy Bloom.