Shut Up!': Neil Cavuto and Dem Rep. Battle it Out in Must See Interview

While discussing the looming "fiscal cliff" on Thursday, Fox News' Neil Cavuto and Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas) had a rather unpleasant exchange of words:

Cavuto repeatedly pressed Rep. Johnson for specifics on what Democrats would be willing to cut as part of a budget agreement. For her part, the Texas congresswoman insisted on focusing on "revenue generation."

“No, you told me things you’d do to raise taxes. That’s what you told me. Credits, allowances, that sort of stuff. That’s what you told me,” Cavuto said.

“You’ve got to talk about revenue generation,” the congresswoman replied.

“I know that, but it’s 100 percent of what you’re talking about, congresswoman,” said Cavuto.

“It is not 100 percent of what I’m talking about. If you’d shut up for just a second, I would try,” she responded.

Cavuto shot back: “You got to tell me one thing you’d cut. I beg you congresswoman, one thing you would say, I would cut this. What would it be?”

Rep. Johnson thought for a moment and responded: “You."

A pause.

“You don’t know, do you?” asked Cavuto.

“Well, yes I do know, but I have to have time to explain it. I can’t tell you I’m going to walk in and cut this and cut that. First of all, it has to have be some type of dialogue. We have not had that,” she said.

Shortly after that, and a little after Rep. Johnson made a crack about Fox News "consulting with the Republicans," Cavuto decided to end the interview and cut to a commercial break. When he came back, he issued an apology.

“Alright, first off folks, I want to apologize to the Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson and to you who might have been offended by my interrupting the Congresswoman, not allowing a simple answer. But that’s all I wanted. A simple answer. What would you cut?” he asked.

The Fox News anchor continued, adding that “both sides have to bring something to the table. Both sides have to be specific and when they are not, it gets maybe a little bit ugly.”

“But I keep telling you here, I've done this to Republicans and to Democrats, I’ve done this to those who say they'll outline revenues but never do, outline cuts but never do,” he added. “I'm not red or blue here. I'm just green and I'm seeing red right now for the craziness of all the green that’s going, but we got to do this sort of thing. We'll stay on it.”

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(H/T: POLITICO)