'They just yanked $1 billion': Reporter stumps GOP sen with rundown of how Trump hurts his state

CNN host Kaitlan Collins on Tuesday cornered Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-MT) with specific examples of how President Donald Trump’s policies are hurting his home state — and appeared to stump the Republican senator on several occasions.

Asked about the ongoing partial government shutdown, Sheehy gave a lengthy reply about the appropriations process before tearing into the “stupid [Senate Minority Leader Chuck] Schumer shutdown.”

Collins told Sheehy that Trump’s approach to this shutdown — chiefly, “cutting programs and laying off federal workers — “[has] literally never happened before in the last 14” government shutdowns, and pressed the senator on the president’s “unprecedented step.” The CNN host specifically called out Trump’s cut to the U.S. Treasury Department’s Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund, a fund Sheehy himself had “signed a letter in support of earlier this year.”

“The president says they're only cutting programs and Democrat stuff,” Collins said. “Is that a Democrat fund that you supported?”

Sheehy insisted Trump will use “every tool in his toolbox” and argued “there have to be consequences for bad behavior” before launching into another monologue about the "Schumer shutdown."

Later in the segment, Collins pushed back on Sheehy’s claim that the Democrats want to fund "healthcare for non citizens, illegal immigrants”— and called out the Republican senator for “getting off [the] topic” of Trump’s cancelled programs.

“[Healthcare] is not for people who are here illegally,” Collins said. “It's people who have different legal status, people who are seeking asylum, refugees … But I ask on the program's part because—“

“Yeah, but saying non citizens is accurate, though,” Sheehy insisted.

“You said people who are here illegally,” Collins explained. “But those are different things. I mean, maybe you don't like Temporary Protected Status, but you're an immigrant with legal status.”

Sheehy tried to stop Collins from moving on, arguing “you can't just pave over that because a lot of people come under asylum, claim asylum, which are not actually asylum seekers."

“That's a legal process,” Collins replied. “You can change the law if you don't like it.”

As Sheehy continued to complain that people falsely claim asylum status, Collins told him he’s “getting off topic.”

“I think it's very much the topic,” Sheehy shot back.

Collins then got to her main point: The Department of Energy’s decision to cancel a $1 billion project that Montana’s own governor said would have created good paying Montana jobs and boost American-made energy.

“They just yanked $1 billion from that,” Collins noted. “So is that taking away good paying jobs in Montana?”

"Of course it is, we want the government to be open,” Sheehy said.

Collins asked Sheehy to clarify if he thought the Trump administration’s decision to pull funding “is hurting [his] state.”

As Sheehy argued the shutdown as a whole is hurting his state, Collins noted “the Trump administration didn't have to make” the decision to pull “billion dollars from your state.”

"Well, I think the reality is we wouldn't be here if the government was still open,” Sheehy said. “And now we're going on week three of a pretty unnecessary shutdown."

Collins noted the U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright "actually" told her “they would have [shut down the project] even if the government wasn't shut down.”

“That was months in the making, even before the government shut down,” Collins said Wright told her.

“Well, that's unfortunate we're still shut down,” Sheehy replied. “We shouldn't be.”