Republicans can’t defend Trump’s government shutdown. Donald Trump has yet to step before the cameras live and defend his shutdown. Trump is the first president in the decades long history of government shutdowns to go into hiding and not speak to the country.
The White House and congressional Republicans have been defending their government shutdown by claiming that Democrats want to restore the Obamacare subsidies to give “illegal aliens” health insurance.
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At the White House press briefing on Friday, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was confronted with the lie.
A reporter asked, “At the top of the briefing, you made a statement about that the Democrats are interested in giving healthcare to illegal immigrants. Yes, they are. US law already prohibits that. It’s a 1996 law saying that they cannot give unauthorized immigrants any federally subsidized healthcare coverage through Medicaid, the Affordable Care, or the Children’s Health Insurance Program. There seems to be a disconnect in the messaging.”
Leavitt tried to change the subject to Medicaid, “Are you denying. That Medicaid money has never gone to illegal aliens in the United States of America.”
Undocumented immigrants can not get Medicaid in the United States. It is illegal. Only immigrants with legal status are eligible for Medicaid after a five-year waiting period.
The answer to Karoline Leavitt is no, “illegal aliens” can’t get Medicaid.
Video of Leavitt:
Leavitt tried to change the subject because she knows that immigrants who are in the country illegally can’t get ACA subsidies, so the claim that Democrats are trying to provide healthcare to non-citizens is a lie.
That lie hasn’t been bought by the vast majority of the public, so all Leavitt can do when challenged on it is change the subject to Medicaid, which she was also wrong about.
The Trump administration can’t defend why they want to make health insurance more expensive, and trotting Karoline Leavitt out to dodge and weave, with a healthy dose of lies, isn’t helping.
Republicans are in a weak position on this shutdown, and the more they try to defend it, the bigger the disaster becomes.
What do you think of Karoline Leavitt’s answer? Join the conversation in the comments below.
