Gavin Newsom Drops Four-Word Smackdown on Vance’s Claim About Democrats Wanting ‘Free Health Care for Illegals’
David Crane/The Orange County Register via AP, File
California Gov. Gavin Newsom was blunt in his response to a false claim by Vice President JD Vance that Democrats are demanding a “$1.5 trillion spending package that funded free health care for illegals” to avoid a government shutdown, posting a four-word tweet.
With the deadline for a government shutdown looming on Oct. 1, Republicans and Democrats have been engaging in the usual partisan finger-pointing over which side should be blamed if a deal can’t be reached.
One GOP claim that Vance has pushed is that the Democrats’ version of the spending bill, which seeks to extend subsidies on Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare) insurance premiums, would be tantamount to providing free health care to illegal immigrants. Democrats have loudly objected to that accusation, pointing to federal law that prohibits illegal immigrants from receiving coverage under Obamacare, Medicaid, and other federal programs — and the actual text of their version of the continuing resolution.
“Donald Trump knows, or at least I think he knows, that current federal law prohibits using taxpayer dollars for undocumented immigrants in connection with their health care. And no one is trying to change or reverse that law,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told MSNBC over the weekend. “What we are doing is fighting to protect the healthcare of everyday Americans in the midst of this Republican-caused crisis that is devastating hospitals and nursing homes and community-based health clinics.”
Nonetheless, Vance and other Republicans have continued to make this false claim in media interviews and other comments over the past few days, and the vice president repeated it on Monday.
In a video clip shared by the White House’s rapid response account, Vance accuses Democrats of wanting “$1.5 trillion spending package” that would give “massive amounts of money” to “illegal aliens for their health care, while Americans are struggling to pay their health care bills,” which he said was “absurd” and “unacceptable,” and blamed them for trying to shut down the government.
Several pending Community Notes on the RapidResponse47 tweet note that federal law bars illegal immigrants from getting federal benefits like Medicaid and the text of the CR does not include such language.
As Jessica Riedl, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, pointed out, the claim that Democrats wanted to pay for health care for illegal immigrants was a “lie” and “not merely an exaggeration or misinterpretation,” but “completely fabricated out of thin air.”
Newsom, who has been sparring with increasing frequency with President Donald Trump in opinionated social media posts, shared the video clip of Vance with a four-word caption.
“Blatantly false, you dish*t,” wrote Newsom.
“Republicans have control of the House, Senate, and White House,” the governor added in a follow-up post. “If the government shuts down, it’s on them.”
