The mostly even tempered Michael Smerconish rarely gets discombobulated to the extent of threatening to shut off his guest's mic. However that is exactly what happened on Saturday on his CNN show after he called the DOGE dividend plan created by his guest, James Fishback, a "Ponzi" scheme.
When Fishback retorted by wondering where CNN was when the federal government promoted such "Ponzi" schemes as Ukraine War funding and $7000 per month payments to illegal migrants, a very defensive Smerconish went into mic shutoff threat territory.
Before the mic shutoff threat, Smerconish went into nervous laughter seemingly in an attempt to override Fishback speaking embarrassing truths about runaway federal spending that has gone unchallenged by CNN.
MICHAEL SMERCONISH: We are $36 trillion in debt. I don't know if you can see that, but that's 106,121 for every single person in America. So if Elon Musk is successful in saving us money from waste, fraud, and abuse, and by the way, James, I hope that he is. I don't like the approach, but I like the fact that something's being done.
There is no money in the till. We owe 36 trillion. We owe $106,000 each. So whatever the savings ought to be, it's not like President Trump's doing us a favor by giving us 20%.
Everything ought to go to the debt because the Peterson people say by 2050, 50% of all revenue is going to go to satisfying interest on the debt. We should be paying the debt. Your response?
JAMES FISHBACK: My response is this. We should be paying the debt. Which is why the DOGE dividend incentivizes every American to call out waste, fraud, and abuse to lower the budget, to narrow the deficit, and to bring down the debt. Where was this emergency over the debt when we sent $350 billion to Ukraine to be wasted? Where was this emergency, Michael, on CNN when you guys were advocating $7,000 to migrants in Chicago? $7,000 a month per migrant. And now we want to spend $5,000 one time from President Trump to hardworking Americans. The migrants didn't deserve $7,000 a month. Hardworking Americans deserve a $5,000 check with President Trump's name on it. So enough with the double standard. Ukraine did not deserve $350 billion.
SMERCONISH: Okay. Listen to me, listen to me. This is Madoff-like, this is a Ponzi scheme. We don't have...
FISHBACK: No, Ukraine was a Ponzi scheme. The migrant funding was a Ponzi scheme. Hardworking American a break.
SMERCONISH: You're not going to divert me. Now, you're not going to divert me James.
FISHBACK: It was their money, Michael. It was their money.
SMERCONISH: James, James, give me a chance to speak. Theoretically, it's my program. We don't have the money is what I'm trying to tell you. It's a Ponzi Madoff-like.
FISHBACK: So we didn't have the money for Ukraine, right? We didn't have the money for Ukraine. 350 billion.
SMERCONISH: I never do this. I don't, I don't want to be that guy. Do I have to silence your microphone so that I can respond to what you've said? Because there's so much fallacy in what you've just offered.
As could be expected there was quite a bit of reaction to Smerconish's mic shutoff threat on X (forever to be still known as Twitter).
JUST IN: CNN’s Michael Smerconish gets wrecked by DOGE dividend creator James Fishback in a fiery exchange. Smerconish fumed, threatened to cut Fishback’s mic, and tried to save face by claiming he supports DOGE’s mission—just not how they execute it. Fishback shut him down,… pic.twitter.com/dhY2EbhhPp
— Kristin Sokoloff (@KSOKUNCENSORED) February 22, 2025
CNN Host Michael Smerconish calls the 'DOGE Dividend' plan a Ponzi scheme. But he won't acknowledge the Ponzi scheme that occurred with Ukraine and all the other wasteful spending DOGE has exposed. CNN is the fraud in my humble opinion. pic.twitter.com/rrMnDa6NYn
— DeVory Darkins (@devorydarkins) February 22, 2025
JUST IN: CNN hack Michael Smerconish throws in the towel and calls “time” after DOGE dividend creator James Fishback eviscerates him over his critiques of DOGE.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) February 22, 2025
Every second of this is absolutely perfect.
The CNN host threatened to cut off Fishback’s mic as he visibly fumed… pic.twitter.com/Oz2rYyzGms
Smerconish's real problem with Fishback appears to be that he was too effective in making his point about CNN's silence in the face of wild federal spending in the past.