CBS News has hired former Trump White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney as a contributor, the network announced, The Hill reported on Tuesday.
CBS said the former Republican congressman from South Carolina, who was also the director of the Office of Budget Management during President Donald Trump's administration, will appear as a political analyst on its various platforms and shows.
Like many other leading national news outlets, CBS has been adding top talent to boost its political coverage as the midterm elections approach in November.
Mulvaney appeared on CBS' streaming service for the first time on Tuesday and was asked about President Joe Biden's budget proposal, the framework for which was revealed on Monday.
Mulvaney said the president's plan to increase taxes on households worth more than $100 million is "a very different way of measuring wealth in this country," insisting that "we've never taxed wealth before, we've taxed income. In fact, the Constitution might not even allow a property tax ... but that's the basic framework.
"We'll find out how much money you've got on things like unrealized stock gains, businesses that you might own, and even though you didn't make money off of that last year we're still going to tax you on it. That's the basis of this proposal."
Since leaving the Trump administration, Mulvaney has criticized the former president for his assertions that he actually won the 2020 presidential election, his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol and predicted that the GOP would likely to move on from Trump in coming elections, according to The Hill.
Last week The State, a local newspaper in South Carolina, reported that a Trump-backed GOP House candidate in the state sent a series of text messages to Mulvaney in which she slammed him for being disloyal to the former president and called him "a true piece of s***."
The hiring of Mulvaney by CBS News was criticized on Twitter by MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan, who wrote, "Remember when some of us said that the Trump people would never be banished from DC or NYC or 'respectable' company, and would be rehabilitated by the so-called 'liberal media'? Don't say we didn't warn you."