White House accuses Democrats of ‘intentional sabotage’ as Trump firings loom on Day 3 of government shutdown: Live updates

House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries says he hasn’t heard from the White House since Monday, when he joined Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for a meeting with Trump to avert a shutdown.

Instead, Jeffries says, Trump has been “hiding” on social media and posting bizarre AI-generated videos.

He calls Trump’s absence of leadership the “presidential witness protection program.”

The president “continues to hide behind deepfake videos since the meeting int he Oval Office on Monday,” Jeffries told reporters Friday.

Americans have a right to ask “what is going on? and “why is there no presidential leadership?”

“I’ve been here all week. We’ve heard radio silence,” he said. “They want to inflict pain on the American people.”

Federal law already prohibits people living in the country illegally from receiving federal health benefits, but the Trump administration and Republican members of Congress have accused Democratic lawmakers of derailing the government over demands for healthcare for “illegal aliens.”

“Are you denying that Medicaid money has never gone to illegal aliens?” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt asked one reporter who pushed back on the administration’s claims.

Emergency Medicaid provisions, however, reimburse hospitals for care provided to people who would otherwise be eligible for Medicaid, regardless of their immigration status, as emergency rooms are required by law to stabilize medical emergencies.

There is no proposal in play that would provide coverage for undocumented immigrants, and the measures Democrats have promoted would preserve health plans for more than 14 million people, including citizens and lawfully present immigrants, whose coverage is at stake.

The Independent’s Andrew Feinberg later asked whether it is the administration’s position that hospitals should stop treating people who come into the emergency department who are not here legally.

“Our position is that it’s completely unacceptable that the Biden administration paroled and encouraged an invasion of tens of millions of illegal aliens into our country, and then promised them free healthcare,” Leavitt replied. “That is a recipe for disaster.”

The “consequences of that” means “American patients are put last,” she said.

Republican Senator Thom Tillis, usually an emissary to negotiating with Democrats, says no talks are happening with Democrats.

Tillis is retiring at the end of 2026 after he disagreed with the Medicaid cuts in the “One Big, Beautiful Bill.” He cut deals during Joe Biden’s presidency on guns and codifying protections for marriage equality.

But Tillis told The Independent no talks are happening “outside of casual conversations with colleagues you want to work with.”

Tillis said there are no working groups or active talks.

“No, I’m gonna have to go back and find the last time the negotiating strategy of shutting down the government, when all that we’ve asked to do is continue funding while we negotiate things has ever happened,” he said.

Tillis seems to be in the same spot as Senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota.

Trump repeatedly denied knowing anything about Project 2025 during his presidential campaign, then appointed its authors to prominent government roles.

This week, he hailed White House budget director Russell Vought for his role with the project, which was developed by the Heritage Foundation as a blueprint to break and reshape the federal government.

Asked whether Trump is now following the blueprint to shrink the government during the shutdown, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said “the blueprint is what the president and his team and cabinet secretaries decide ultimately.”

As she began her briefing Friday, White House press secretary lambasted Democratic members of Congress for the impasse on legislation to stop the government shutdown.

She accused Democrats of “intentional sabotage.”

Leavitt claimed Democrats “continue to recklessly hold the American people hostage over their demands to give illegal aliens free healthcare,” despite undocumented immigrants not being eligible for any federal health benefits.

“Democrats will have an opportunity very shortly here to change course — and we hope that they will,” she said.

Federal employees at several agencies were surprised to learn that their email accounts were automatically responding to messages with out-of-office replies that blamed Democratic members of Congress for the government shutdown.

“This is such bull****,” one employee said.

Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto criticized the Trump administration and Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought for canceling projects in blue states amid a government shutdown.

The Nevada Democrat voted for the Republican continuing resolution to keep the government open on Tuesday evening and again on Wednesday, despite her caucus demanding that any continuing resolution include an extension of enhanced tax credits for the Affordable Care Act’s insurance marketplaces.

“It shows you how punitive the administration is [that] they’re not willing to get in a room and help us, and work with us to negotiate,” Cortez Masto told The Independent. “To them this is a game and it’s unfortunate because the only people who are being hurt are the American people.”

At the heart of the government shutdown are expiring subsidies for low- and middle-income earners who purchase their health coverage through the Affordable Care Act.

Those credits are set to expire at the end of the year if Congress does not extend them.

If they do, people on those plans are expected to pay more than double for their premiums next year, according to KFF.

Democrats have pushed for those COVID-era subsidies to be extended again, and for lawmakers to reverse Medicaid cuts in Trump’s megabill that was signed into law this summer.

Those cuts are not yet in effect but are already driving some states to cut payments to health providers.

Senator Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, warned that the ongoing impasse over those subsidies are creating a healthcare crisis for their constituents.

“Millions of families are about to see monthly healthcare costs jump by hundreds if not thousands of dollars,” she said in remarks on the Senate floor Friday.

The GOP’s plan appears to be “hope no one notices,” she said. “It’s no exaggeration to say people will die.”

Sen. Mike Rounds, a Republican talking with Democratic senators, said he does not think enough Democratic Senators want to get to “yes” on ending the government shutdown.

“I’m not optimistic that more than just a few of them want to get to yes,” he said.

Rounds said Democratic senators, who are demanding a continuing resolution to reopen the government include an extension of COVID-era enhanced subsidies for the Affordable Care Act marketplace, are still trying to please their base.

“I think they’re still feeling the pressure to tell their base that they’re fighting the administration,” he said.

“And it’s unfortunate because their time is running out as well, because there is no way to begin working and trying to solve any issues surrounding any of the supplemental credits, the covid credits, that are expiring,” he added.

Rounds warned that the extension needs to happen before November 1 so states can make any modification to premium rates.

“If not, Democrats set this up to expire on January 1 of 2026 it will expire at that time, and as long as they’re in a shutdown, there is nobody negotiating on that, and we continue to share with them, this is not a case of where Republicans are running out of time,” he said.

“This is a case where our Democrat colleagues are running out of time.”

New York Governor Kathy Hochul says $187 million in funding for police counterterrorism efforts has been restored after the Trump administration threatened the funds at the onset of the government shutdown.

“From the moment these devastating cuts were announced, I made it clear that New York would not stand by while our law enforcement and counterterrorism operations were defunded,” the governor said in a statement Friday.

“I’m glad President Trump heard our call and reversed course, ensuring our state has the resources necessary to support law enforcement and keep our families safe,” she added.

The cuts — the largest federal defunding of police programs in New York in decades — were directed by the Department of Homeland Security without Trump’s approval, according to the White House.