White House Responds To Networks Claims About Shutdown
In a sharp and pointed rebuke, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt laid into CNN after the network abruptly cut away from House Speaker Mike Johnson’s remarks on the looming government shutdown — choosing instead to have anchor Pamela Brown interject with what Leavitt called blatant political spin.
The moment in question occurred Thursday morning during The Situation Room. Speaker Johnson, outlining the Republican case for the shutdown, placed blame squarely on Democrats, specifically citing their push to extend taxpayer-funded healthcare to illegal immigrants. But CNN didn’t let the full remarks air. As they cut away, Brown editorialized that Johnson was “falsely claiming” Democrats wanted to offer expanded healthcare benefits to illegal immigrants — a statement Leavitt and others in the administration quickly and forcefully refuted.
CNN’s ratings are in the toilet because they’re a propaganda machine for Democrats.
Here are the actual FACTS:
Democrats shut down the federal government to try to give taxpayer-funded benefits to illegal aliens.
The funding proposal put forward by the Democrats would result… pic.twitter.com/mQzgCMLHQA
— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) October 2, 2025
Leavitt took to X to push back, calling CNN a “propaganda machine for Democrats” and offering what she called the actual facts behind the shutdown. At the center of the dispute is a funding package Democrats advanced, which the Trump administration argues would allocate nearly $200 billion over the next decade to non-citizens, including illegal immigrants.
As Leavitt framed it, this was not about healthcare policy in general — it was about priorities. “Democrats shut down the federal government to try to give taxpayer-funded benefits to illegal aliens,” she wrote bluntly.
Her fact check further asserted that the Democratic proposal would gut Trump-era tax reforms aimed at cracking down on fraud and restoring limits on benefits for illegal immigrants. She also warned the proposal would reroute Medicaid funds to cover emergency care for those unlawfully in the country — while reducing resources available to disabled Americans, the elderly, and children.
Maxine Waters admits Democrats are going to shutdown the government to try to secure healthcare for illegal immigrants.
Reporter: “Are Democrats demanding healthcare for illegal aliens?”
Rep. Waters: “Democrats are demanding healthcare for everybody.” pic.twitter.com/e5rxdIJrjP
— Alex Pfeiffer (@AlexPfeiffer) September 30, 2025
And it wasn’t just Leavitt. Abigail Jackson, another White House spokeswoman, echoed the sentiment in a statement to Breitbart News, accusing CNN of shielding its dwindling audience from facts that challenge its political narrative. “Their repeated patterns of lies and deception are why Americans’ confidence in the media has hit a new low,” Jackson said. “The Trump Administration will never shy away from sharing the truth with Americans.”
Meanwhile, Democrats, including Rep. Maxine Waters, have publicly confirmed that extending healthcare access to illegal immigrants was a component of their shutdown negotiations — adding fuel to the White House’s charge that CNN’s “false claim” wasn’t just misleading, it was a direct contradiction of Democrats’ own statements.
