Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney reacted to the aftermath of Robert Mueller’s testimony and a new push for investigating President Trump by claiming it is simply House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., trying to keep his job.

Nadler is facing a primary challenge from Lindsey Boylan, a progressive candidate looking to do to him what Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., did to House veteran Joe Crowley. Boylan has called for Trump’s impeachment, and Mulvaney thinks Nadler is now doing the same in an effort to stave off the threat from the left.

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“He is falling over himself to become more and more progressive, in order to try and keep his job and not lose to the next AOC” Mulvaney said.

Nadler said after Mueller’s testimony that “there appears to be compelling evidence of the president’s misconduct outside of the four corners of the redacted version of Mueller report, and we will work to uncover that evidence as well.” Mulvaney said that Nadler also told people he has initiated an impeachment inquiry.

“This is not over in their minds, which is just bizarre given what happened this week,” Mulvaney said, referring to Mueller’s hearing. Trump and fellow Republicans touted the hearing as a victory due to Mueller’s lackluster performance in the face of scrutiny from GOP questioning, and a lack of new information to support Democrats.

Mulvaney also criticized Mueller’s comments regarding obstruction of justice, and how the report said he did not “exonerate” Trump.

“You don’t get exonerated, you are innocent until proven guilty,” Mulvaney said. “This is over.”

Mulvaney also came to President Trump’s defense in the wake of recent accusations of racism from Democrats. Trump criticized Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., for not doing enough to help his Baltimore district, saying conditions there are worse than those at the southern border. Trump’s language drew criticism from Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.

Mulvaney claimed that Trump’s criticism of Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., had nothing to do with race, and was simply a response to unjustified remarks from the House Oversight Committee chairman.

“The president is attacking Mr. Cummings for saying things that are not true about the border,” Mulvaney told host Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday,” saying that the president’s remarks have “absolutely zero to do with race.”

Mulvaney pointed to a House Oversight hearing where Cummings cited conditions at the border, claiming that children were sitting in their own feces.

“That’s just not right. It’s not accurate,” Mulvaney said, stating that Cummings does not have any first-hand knowledge about border conditions.

“Mr. Cummings has not been to the border in recent memory, certainly not during this administration,” Mulvaney said.

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This week, the Senate is set to vote on a budget bill which raises spending by $324 billion over spending caps. When asked if Trump wants it to pass, Mulvaney said yes, and that Trump will sign it, despite the excessive spending. He justified it by touting money that will be going toward defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

“Did we spend more money than we wanted to? Yes. Did we get a lot in return? Yes.”

Mulvaney also celebrated the recent Supreme Court decision that allowed the Trump administration to use $2.5 billion in Defense Department money on construction of a wall along the southern border.

“That’s the right decision,” he said.

CNN anchor Victor Blackwell struggled to keep his composure Saturday while reporting on President Trump’s Twitter tirade against Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., and his congressional district in Baltimore.

Blackwell, 38, told viewers he’s a Baltimore native and took personal offense to the president’s comments about the city, including Trump’s remark that “No human being would want to live there.”

“You know who did, Mr. President? I did,” Blackwell responded on the air Saturday. “From the day I was brought home from the hospital to the day I left for college, and a lot of people I care about still do.”

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“There are challenges no doubt, but people are proud of their community,” Blackwell continued, according to the Daily Beast. “I don’t want to sound self-righteous, but people get up and go to work there. They care for their families there. They love their children who pledge allegiance to the flag just like people who live in districts of congressmen who support you, sir. They are Americans, too!”

Blackwell also referred to the president’s use of the word “infested” during his critique of Baltimore. The CNN anchor accused the president of taking a word normally associated with rodents and insects and using in attacks against lawmakers who are members of minority groups.

“He’s insulted thousands of people, many different types of people,” Blackwell said, according to the Washington Post. “But when he tweets about infestation, it’s about black and brown people.”

Antagonistic relationship

Trump and CNN have long had an antagonistic relationship, with the president often accusing the network of reporting “fake news” and referring to it as “the enemy of the people.”

Just days ago, CNN’s Jake Tapper ripped the president for tweeting, “TRUTH IS A FORCE OF NATURE!” after former Special Counsel Robert Mueller testified on Capitol Hill.

“It’s interesting for the president to be saying in all caps that truth is a force of nature,” Tapper remarked, “because what we’ve been hearing about to a large degree all day is how many lies President Trump and the team have told.”

Earlier this month, CNN’s Chris Cuomo and Don Lemon took Trump to task for spelling errors in his social media messages.

“If you are the president of the United States and people hang on your every word,” Lemon said, “then you should check and recheck and double-check and triple-check and make sure that your spelling is correct.”

“If you are the president of the United States and people hang on your every word, then you should check and recheck and double-check and triple-check and make sure that your spelling is correct.”

— CNN’s Don Lemon

Also this month, CNN’s Anderson Cooper accused the president’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, of misrepresenting a situation that occurred in North Carolina, where a crowd a one of President Trump’s rallies chanted “Send her back!” in reference to far-left U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., an immigrant from Somalia.

“She’s just friggin’ lying,” Cooper said at one point.

“She’s just friggin’ lying.”

— CNN’s Anderson Cooper

Contentious moment

Perhaps the most contentious moment between the president and the network came last November, when the White House suspended the press pass of Jim Acosta, CNN’s White House correspondent.

The move was prompted by what the White House viewed as inappropriate questions from Acosta, plus an incident where the reporter appeared to have placed his hands on a White House intern in what appeared to be an attempt to prevent her from taking a microphone back from him during a news conference.

The suspension against Acosta was ultimately lifted. Last month he put out a book about his time covering the White House, with the title, “The Enemy of the People.”

President Trump drew a torrent of criticism from Democrats on Saturday over a series of Twitter messages aimed at U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., and the Baltimore district that Cummings represents in Congress.

But just a few years ago, Sen. Bernie Sanders — a candidate seeking the Democratic Party’s 2020 presidential nomination — took his own shots at Baltimore, a struggling Northeast city grappling with high rates of violent crime, drug abuse, poverty and political corruption.

“Anyone who took the walk that we took around this neighborhood would not think you’re in a wealthy nation,” Sanders said during a visit to the city’s West Baltimore section in December 2015, the Baltimore Sun reported. “You would think that you were in a Third World country.”

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The independent U.S. senator from Vermont also referred to Baltimore as “a community in which half of the people don’t have jobs.”

“We’re talking about a community in which there are hundreds of buildings that are uninhabitable,” he added, according to the Sun.

“We’re talking about a community in which there are hundreds of buildings that are uninhabitable.”

— U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.

Sanders was visiting the section of Baltimore where a 25-year-old black man named Freddie Gray was arrested earlier that year for allegedly possessing an illegal knife. Gray fell into a coma while in police custody and died a few days later, sparking a national outcry against members of the city’s police department.

But all six police officers who were suspended in connection with the death either had all charges against them dropped, or were acquitted.

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In 2016, Sanders posted a Twitter message about Baltimore.

“Residents of Baltimore’s poorest boroughs have lifespans shorter than people living under dictatorship in North Korea,” Sanders wrote. “That is a disgrace.”

The bleak portrait Sanders painted back then seems little different from the one Trump presented Saturday, in which the president said the city had become a monument to governmental failures.

In one message, Trump described Cummings’ district as “a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess.”

“If he spent more time in Baltimore,” the president added, “maybe he could help clean up this very dangerous & filthy place.”

“Where is all this money going?” Trump asked later, referring to federal dollars sent to Baltimore over the years. “How much is stolen? Investigate this corrupt mess immediately!”

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Prominent Democrats – including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, who was born in Baltimore and whose father was a Baltimore mayor, and presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren – were quick to defend Cummings and fire back at Trump.

Also on Saturday, Sanders appeared to abandon his past critiques of Baltimore and focus instead on defending Cummings and bashing the president.

“Here’s what’s really going on,” Sanders wrote. “@RepCummings has been busy revealing the failures of the Trump administration and exposing the greed of Trump’s friends in the pharmaceutical industry, and our racist president doesn’t like it.”