CNN’s Abby Phillip shut down conservative commentator Scott Jennings’ attempts to regurgitate President Donald Trump’s messaging around the government shutdown, telling him, “Scott, that’s a lie.”
On CNN Saturday Morning Table for Five, the panel was discussing the government shutdown that began on Wednesday, and which Trump and the Republicans have repeatedly attempted to blame on Democrats, claiming that Democrats are trying to give undocumented immigrants free health care.
Talking about the president’s Truth Social posts about the shutdown, including a racist AI-generated video featuring Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, Jennings said, “The fact is, [Democrats] don’t just want the subsidies. They want other things. And the president is drawing attention to it, I think, in a pretty clever way.”
Phillip quickly responded, “Medicaid is still not going to illegal immigrants, Scott,” which kicked off a back-and-forth between the pair where they argued over basic facts. In reality, Democrats are only seeking to extend Medicaid coverage to immigrants with legal status or government protection.
Phillip attempted to highlight a key issue with the budget that Democrats are seeking to address, which is the loss of health-care funding for states. She told Jennings, “Listen, the part of the bill that deals with the money that goes to states, it doesn’t say anything about their immigration policy. So red state or blue state, those states are getting less money from the federal government. That still has to be dealt with. And that has nothing to do with immigration.”
She added, “Medicaid does not go to undocumented immigrants. SNAP does not go to undocumented immigrants. You know, CHIP does not go to undocumented immigrants,” before challenging Jennings to prove her wrong.
“Scott, show me the U.S. code where it says that they’re allowed to get Medicaid funding,” Phillip said.
“I will show it on social media,” Jennings said as Phillip replied, “It doesn’t exist,” before exasperatedly telling him, “Scott, that is a lie, OK?”
Jennings attempted to argue further but, undeterred, Phillip continued, adding, “You might want to dispute whether or not states should get reimbursed from the federal—or should get federal dollars for Medicaid at the levels that they got it before. That’s a different issue. But that’s not an issue that’s actually tied to immigration and you know it.”
Other Republicans have also struggled when confronted about the inaccurate talking points being pushed by the Trump administration.
Democratic Rep. Madeleine Dean confronted Speaker Mike Johnson over Trump’s offensive AI-generated video, while even Fox News’ Laura Ingraham pushed back on Johnson’s claim that Chuck Schumer wants to give health care to “illegal aliens”.
“[Schumer] says that’s not true. Democrats say it’s expanding Medicaid, getting dollars back from Medicaid,” Ingraham, a fierce Trump supporter, told Johnson.
