Kaitlan Collins Pushes Leavitt on Shutdown Layoffs: Isn’t That the ‘President’s Call?’

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins pushed White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt during Monday’s briefing over who is to blame if federal workers are laid off during the government shutdown.

“The president said yesterday that Democrats will be to blame if federal workers lose their jobs,” Collins began. “Historically, though in past shutdowns, workers have been furloughed, not laid off en masse. So, wouldn’t that be the president’s call to lay people off?

“As I’ve said repeatedly, Kaitlan, this conversation about layoffs would not be happening if the Democrats did not vote to shut the government down,” Leavitt said, continuing:

And as I also said last briefing as well, we are $37 trillion in debt and the government is not receiving any cash. So, someone has to look at the balance sheet and be good stewards of the American taxpayer dollar. And layoffs are an unfortunate consequence of that.

As I’mm telling you now they are focused on checking the balance sheet and ensuring the right thing by the American taxpayer. And again, these conversations about layoffs would not be happening in the white house today if not for the Democrat shut down. And they have a choice to change that. They have another opportunity tonight to do the right thing and reopen the government.

Shortly before the funding deadline passed, President Donald Trump announced his plans to use a government shutdown to cut “Democrat Agencies” through Russel Vought, his chief of the Office of Management and Budget, who also wrote about such a move in the Project 2025 framework.

“I have a meeting…with Russ Vought, he of PROJECT 2025 Fame, to determine which of the many Democrat Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM, he recommends to be cut, and whether or not those cuts will be temporary or permanent,” Trump declared on Truth Social. “I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity. They are not stupid people, so maybe this is their way of wanting to, quietly and quickly, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

Watch the clip above via CNN.