CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Goes Hard at Trump Talking Point in Dogged Grilling of Speaker Johnson
CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins called BS on President Donald Trump’s talking point on the looming Government shutdown in a dogged grilling of Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA).
As a government shutdown loomed this week, Trump and the Republicans assailed Democrats with the talking point that, as Trump put it in an AI-generated fake video featuring racist caricatures, Democrats want to “give all these illegal aliens free health care.”
But that claim has been ruled false by numerous fact-checkers.
On Tuesday night’s edition of CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins, Collins pushed back on Johnson for a solid four minutes-plus, repeatedly noting that “people who are here in the United States legally have never been eligible” for the benefits in question:
COLLINS: So, I heard you make that first point at the White House yesterday, after the meeting y’all had with the President and with Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries. As you know, people who are here in the United States legally have never been eligible for the Obamacare subsidies for Medicare, for Medicaid.
JOHNSON: Yes.
COLLINS: So, what exactly are you saying that they’re trying to do when you talk about giving free health care to them?
JOHNSON: I’m so glad you asked. OK. So when we passed the one big, beautiful bill, the Working Families Tax Cut, we had Medicaid reforms in the bill. You and I talked about it on the air.
What we did was to eliminate fraud, waste and abuse. There were a lot of people on the program, who were enrolled in the program, who were never eligible to be there. Medicaid is intended for eligible U.S. citizens, not illegal aliens, not also U.S. citizens who are able- bodied workers, like young men.
So, we passed the law. This President signed it into law. Democrats voted against it, of course. And it’s been wildly successful.
The CBO, the Congressional Budget Office, which is the neutral arbiter of all these things, released a report, a few weeks ago, earlier this month, and they said, You know what? The bill has had its intended purpose.
Premiums are coming down, listen, because 2.3 million ineligible enrollees have been kicked off of Medicaid, which helps to save the program, prop it up, and a $185 billion has been saved already–
COLLINS: So basically–
JOHNSON: –in fraud, waste and abuse.
COLLINS: –what you did was narrow the eligibility for certain people to get access to the ACA subsidies. What they want to do is undo the changes that Republicans made in that. But basically, wouldn’t that only affect people who do have legal status, people who are refugee seekers, here in the United States, asylum seekers here? JOHNSON: No — those are two totally different issues. Now, they’ve created this as a new argument that they have, as to why they should not keep the government open. But they’re arguing a December policy debate for a September funding issue. The subsidies–
COLLINS: No, no–
JOHNSON: –that you’re talking about don’t expire until the end of December.
COLLINS: No, we’re — no, no, no, those are–
JOHNSON: Right–
COLLINS: The subsidies for just everyday Americans, that’s one thing that obviously has been the main premise of their argument. But you’re saying they want to give free health care to people who are in the United States illegally. But the–
JOHNSON: That is exactly what the effect will be if–
COLLINS: But when I looked at it, there’s a little nuance, because it’s they want to undo changes that y’all made, narrowing who was eligible to get that.
JOHNSON: Yes.
COLLINS: Those are people who are refugee seekers, asylum seekers. They’re not technically people, who are here illegally, just crossed the border.
JOHNSON: No, this is exactly what will happen. And Maxine Waters admitted, I think, accidentally today on the House steps, they want to give health care to everybody. That’s–
COLLINS: But Maxine Waters is not in charge. She’s not the one–
JOHNSON: Well, no. She’s one of the senior leaders in the House. And you should–
COLLINS: –she didn’t write this proposal, as the bill that Democrats are proposing.
JOHNSON: And everybody should Google it and read their counter proposal yourself.
COLLINS: But you see my point, right? You’re making this argument that they want to just give health care to everyone who’s here illegally. This is not for people who crossed the border and don’t have paperwork. These are–
JOHNSON: No.
COLLINS: –people who have Temporary Protected Status, right?
JOHNSON: No. Absolutely what will happen, if that counter proposal was enacted is illegal aliens would be paid for. American taxpayers’ hard- earned dollars would be paying for benefits for illegal aliens again. We’re not doing that.
COLLINS: But it’s against federal law for people who are here illegally–
JOHNSON: Yes, yes.
COLLINS: –to get health care.
JOHNSON: And that’s why our reforms are so important to enforce all that. What the important thing to remember is what’s happening tonight–
COLLINS: But I didn’t see that in the Democratic proposal that people who are here illegally should get health care.
JOHNSON: No, because they don’t have the level of specification that we had in our bill. It will unwind that, and all those things that the CBO just verified will be reversed. We can’t afford to do that. The program has been–
COLLINS: But you see my point that there’s nuance in the argument that you’re making, right?
JOHNSON: No, I don’t see your point. No. No. That is a red herring in this — in this debate.
What they’ve decided to do tonight, with their vote, is to close the government. And what that means, everybody needs to understand, real pain for real Americans. What does that mean? It means women, infants and children, do not get their nutrition programs. That is not funded anymore.
Veterans don’t get their health care services, suicide prevention and other very important things that are very timely. You have low-income persons who are Medicaid and Medicare recipients who are receiving care at home, those programs are now lapsed. They will not be funded.
COLLINS: Yes, you’re making a point about what happens if the government shuts–
JOHNSON: You got troops not paid. TSA agents won’t–
COLLINS: –shuts down.
JOHNSON: That’s right, and they just decided to do it.
So the only question tonight is, how long will Chuck Schumer keep the government closed? It’s a dangerous gambit. It’s something that he himself said his entire political career would be dangerous and disastrous. Roll the tape. We’re rolling the greatest hits on our social media platforms.
COLLINS: Yes, I’m just saying that the point about giving people who are here illegally, health care, is not exactly what is in their proposal.
JOHNSON: No, it is — it is 100 percent what their proposal–
COLLINS: It’s immigrants who have legal status–
JOHNSON: No, Kaitlan, you’re wrong.
COLLINS: –and you’re just disagreeing on who’s eligible.
JOHNSON: No, I’m not.
COLLINS: I looked at it, actually, because I was curious about your argument, yesterday.
JOHNSON: You should study the CBO’s analysis that they just put out a few weeks ago, and you should–
COLLINS: Yes, I saw that. But the 1.2 million people — you’re basically arguing about who has — who has legal status, people who are seeking refugee or–
JOHNSON: No. No, I’m not.
COLLINS: –or seeking asylum.
JOHNSON: No, I’m making sure that — we are making sure, and our provisions that we signed into law have ensured that health care benefits go only to eligible U.S. citizens. Chuck Schumer’s proposal–
COLLINS: Right, as is federal law.
JOHNSON: Federal law was not being enforced. That’s the whole point. We had to finetune that, so that we could strengthen the health care program. That’s what we did.
Watch above via CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins.
