CNN's John Berman wrote off a Republican lawmaker's defense of President Donald Trump's social media activity with some light mockery.

Rep. Carlos Giménez (R-FL) appeared Thursday morning on "CNN News Central," where he was asked about the Trump administration threatening to rescind funding approved by Congress, but he defended the moves as rolling back priorities of former President Joe Biden.

"Well, look, there's plenty of stuff that Congress passed during the Biden administration that I thought was a waste of money, okay," Giménez said, "and frankly, that's what the what the Trump administration is doing now is finding those places where, they think, it's also a waste of taxpayer money and clawing that back. I don't have really a problem with it. Give it back to us, let's see if it's, in fact, we believe that it's necessary or not, and then, and move on. Different administrations have different priorities, and believe me, my priorities were never aligned with the priorities of the Biden administration."

Berman pointed out that the administration was not actually sending those decisions back to Congress but deciding unilaterally to cancel their appropriations, and then he moved on to ask the lawmaker about the president posting an AI-generated video showing House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries wearing a sombrero and handlebar mustache.

"Vice President [JD] Vance says he thinks it's funny," Berman said. "There are a lot of people who look at this and say, just flat out racist. How does this help with the negotiations, congressman?"

Giménez insisted there was nothing wrong with the post, which came after Trump and Vance accused Democrats of forcing a government shutdown to protect health care funding for undocumented immigrants.

"Well, look, I think it's just making making fun of Hakeem Jeffries," Giménez said. "I think everybody needs to chill out a little bit, okay, and you're going to see more of these things happen, and so people need to develop a little bit thicker skin, you know, and that's, and it comes with the territory when you are a politician. So I would expect the meme to come out of me, and so if you complain about it, you're just going to get more of it, and so now I saw it, you know, okay. I kind of chuckled, and then we move on."

Berman gently chided the lawmaker for justifying the president's post.

"No one would ever meme you, congressman," Berman said. "But I do wonder what the what the thousands of furloughed, I do wonder what the thousands of furloughed federal workers think and how they think this is helping them right now."

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