CNBC host Steve Liesman rebuked Rep. Jason Smith for not taking responsibility over deplorable conditions in ICE detention centers, describing them as an embarrassment for the administration.

Congressman Smith joined Squawk Box to discuss the state of affairs on Trump's tariffs, reorganizing ICE, and the murders of Good and Pretti.

The mood got dark for Smith when Liesman began systematically attacking the DHS over its behavior in Minnesota and the immigration detention centers overall.

Liesman asked if the Border Patrol and ICE need to be reformed, which lead to some heated exchanges.

LIESMAN: There aren't two people dead as a result of problems in government that need to be reformed. I mean, in Minnesota, right?

I mean, there are people in the streets that are protesting the actions by this agency, and there isn't concern about what they might do with elections and picking up people off the streets in schools, right?

I mean, that's a different story. Are you not in favor of reform for ICE specifically?

Rep. Smith, as usual, refused to comment on an ongoing investigation and then blamed President Biden for having porous borders. Kernen let him spew his bullshit about the security of the border under Trump.

Then when asked about the detention centers, Smith did the both-sides jig and Liesman would not have it.

LIESMAN: OK, what about the way people are being treated in the detention centers? There are stories about 70 people being crowded into cells, people not getting outside at all, and just horrific, horrific conditions.

Is that an issue that needs to be looked at?

SMITH: I'm sure that those conditions never existed under Joe Biden or President Obama. It only happens under a Republican president.

LIESMAN: I'm sorry, sir, but I'm not asking about Biden. I'm asking about the conditions right now in the detention centers and whether or not you think those are humane and need to be reformed.

SMITH: The conditions right now in the detention center are better than they were under Obama or Biden.

LIESMAN: How do you know when Congress is not allowed to go visit them?

SMITH: Congress has oversight, and we know the standards and what's going on.

So for a Democrat to say that they don't know what's going on or the standards are simply not telling the truth.

LIESMAN: I'll just say I think it's a national embarrassment what's happening.

Smith thought he was going to talk to the Trump friendly CNBC host Joe Kernen and wasn't prepared for a real interview with Steve Liesman.

The Trump administration implemented new policies like a seven-day notice that restricts immediate access by members of Congress which gives the detention centers time to clean up their horrid conditions. Smith knows this but played the semantics game.

Notice how Rep. Smith, like every Trump official refuses to address any direct question about their actions on immigration and instead, either attacks Biden and Obama or gets hostile and reads off a Trump approved list of his supposed accomplishments as a rebuttal.

It's despicable.