Things got a bit heated today in the White House Press Briefly as the ever-vile Kaitlan Collins from CNN got into it with Karoline Leavitt. But Leavitt handled it with grace and strength and quickly educated Collins, not that it will help.  As Forrest Gump told us, “you can’t fix stupid!” Watch here: TRANSCRIPT: Reporter: Local officials that you can point to that have said, “We need the National Guard”? ’Cause I spoke to the police chief of Portland last week. He said that the president’s claims just don’t match up with what’s happening on the ground. Spokesperson: I would encourage you as a reporter to go on the ground and to take a look at it for yourself, because there have been many members of the press—not press in this room, but independent journalists—some of whom we’ll be inviting to the White House very soon to share their stories. Because they have been in the middle of these riots, and they have witnessed the anarchy that is taking place night after night. It’s on video. You should play it on your show. You have a great opportunity in primetime on CNN to show your audience— Reporter: But these are people without political capital to ask those questions. Spokesperson: Yeah, but you’re probably talking to partisan Democrat officials who are opposed to everything this president does. You should also ask the people who live in Portland. We’ve actually heard from many members of the community who have said that this is complete civil disobedience. It’s a mess. It’s been loud. It’s been troubling for neighbors in the community who are just trying to live peacefully, and these people are not there to peacefully protest. They are there to cause mayhem and havoc. Reporter: Can I just say, the police chief is not a Democratic candidate for president. Actually, the entire press conference was great and I would recommend watching. I’m going to start covering a lot more of these because there is a ton of info in here. Watch here: FULL TRANSCRIPT: Karoline Leavitt: Hey, Steve. How are you? Glad you’re so excited to see me today. All righty. Good afternoon, everybody, and happy Monday. Let’s get to it, and we’ll begin with a few scheduling announcements today. President Trump will be hosting the Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney, tomorrow for a working meeting here at the White House. On Thursday, the president will host his 8th Cabinet meeting, alongside his incredible team. Also on Thursday afternoon, President Trump will host the president of Finland, Alexander Stubb, for a working meeting here at the White House. The president also wanted me to relay his congratulations to Japan for electing their next prime minister, a highly respected person who also happens to be the first female to hold the position for our great ally. While President Trump continues to negotiate peace—peace deals, meets with world leaders, and celebrates the 250th birthday of our United States Navy, as you saw he and the First Lady do just yesterday, Democrats, unfortunately, are continuing to play political games, and we are now in day six of the Democrat federal government shutdown. Millions of American federal workers are under enormous financial stress as a result, wondering how they will pay their bills and take care of their families. If the Democrats do not vote to open the government tonight, federal workers will not receive their next full paycheck. Additionally, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children will run out of federal money very soon. This program provides vouchers to buy infant formula, fresh fruits and vegetables, and other healthy foods for low-income families. It can be easily fully funded if Democrats simply vote tonight to reopen the government. Also, our incredible military service members who risk their lives to preserve and defend our country are now working without pay and will miss their next paychecks if this Democrat shutdown does not end tonight. The Republican-backed, clean and nonpartisan funding bill fully funds this important food aid program, gets our troops paid, and reopens the government. So all of this begs the question: what is the Democrat ongoing shutdown truly about? The sad truth, we believe, is that the Democrats intentionally shut down the government and are inflicting this pain on American citizens to try and demand free healthcare for illegal aliens. Of course, this is an indefensible and truly radical policy to be in favor of, let alone to use as the primary reason to shut down the United States government, so the Democrats and their allies are desperately lying about their true motivations. We have to set the record straight with the facts so the American people understand what’s really at play here. House Republicans passed a clean and nonpartisan funding bill to keep the government open and ensure our troops and other hardworking Americans are paid. Every single House Democrat, except one, voted against this clean and nonpartisan funding bill. Senate Republicans have subsequently tried to pass this same clean funding bill four separate times, and they will do so again tonight to fully pass it to be sent to the president’s desk for signature. And the president is ready to sign this bill to reopen the government as soon as it is sent to his desk. Yet every single Senate Democrat, except three, have voted against this clean and nonpartisan funding bill. The Democrats’ current position is that the only way the American government can reopen is if illegal aliens can get free healthcare. Don’t take my word for it—just look at what’s inside the Democrats’ proposal to reopen the government. Their funding proposal would result in nearly $200 billion spent on healthcare for illegal aliens and other noncitizens over the next decade. To put this in perspective, $200 billion is enough money to fund the entire Children’s Health Insurance Program, which provides health insurance to low-income children and women. Under the Democrats’ proposal, the millions of illegal aliens who improperly were granted asylum and paroled under the Biden administration would once again be allowed to receive Medicaid benefits. It does not end there. The Democrat proposal would also require Medicaid to pay more for emergency care provided to illegal aliens than it does for American patients who are disabled, elderly, or children. When someone shows you who they are, believe them. The Democrat Party has unfortunately closed our government, costing Americans their jobs, threatening our military readiness, harming our economy, and causing chaos, all to help the illegals who broke into our country. Instead of holding illegal aliens accountable and removing them from our country, which is what this administration is trying to do every day, the Democrats want to give them free benefits paid for by the American taxpayer. Democrats in 2025 are for illegal aliens first and Americans last. This is the reality we are unfortunately facing right now in Washington, D.C. President Trump and Republicans will not give in to these radical demands. The president and Republicans have a sacred responsibility to serve and protect the interests of their constituents, the American people. That’s why we are backing a clean and nonpartisan funding bill with no strings attached to reopen the government. Democrats should do what they did 13 separate times under Joe Biden and vote for this exact same type of funding bill. Now, the Senate will vote tonight for the fifth time to reopen the government on the sixth day of this shutdown. All we need are an additional five Democrat senators to end this madness and vote for the clean funding bill to reopen the government. If you are an American watching at home right now, call your Democrat senators and tell them to do the right thing and end this shutdown. With that, I will take your questions here in our new media seat today. Elizabeth Mitchell: Thank you for having me. I have two questions. First, President Trump told reporters yesterday that firings of federal employees are taking place right now. In which departments have people already been fired from their federal jobs due to the shutdown? Karoline Leavitt: The president was referring to the hundreds of thousands of federal workers who have been furloughed as a result of this federal government shutdown, both here at the White House and across the entire federal government. At agencies across the board, there are federal workers who are staying home. Many of them work in the White House—you know them; some of them sit just behind me at those desks. They are now unable to show up to work right now because the Democrats chose to shut the government down, and so we’re already, unfortunately, seeing the consequence of this. And then of course, the Office of Management and Budget is continuing to work with agencies on who, unfortunately, is going to have to be laid off if this shutdown continues. Elizabeth Mitchell: And Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the FDA was required by federal law to approve the new abortion pill last week. Is the administration considering steps to undo this in light of requests from pro-life Congress members and organizations? Karoline Leavitt: I think Secretary Kennedy and the Department of Health and Human Services, as I addressed in the briefing last week, were following the law, and we will continue to do so. As I said last week as well, it’s not an endorsement of this drug by any means. It’s just the law that they were following. Jennifer: We heard you say that you want people to call their Democratic senators. Is the president calling Democratic senators himself? Can you say what he’s doing today to resolve the shutdown? Karoline Leavitt: Yep. I was just in the Oval Office. He was on the phone with Speaker Johnson. He’s also spoken with the Senate Majority Leader. We are in touch with, of course, moderate Democrats and Democrats across the board, who we understand hopefully want to do the right thing by their constituents to reopen the government. So, the president is being kept very well apprised of the ongoing shutdown on Capitol Hill, and of course, his position is very clear. There’s nothing to negotiate. Just reopen the government, and then we can talk about all the important issues facing our country. Jennifer: So, he hasn’t called specific members of Congress himself? Karoline Leavitt: Not to my knowledge, no. Jennifer: And then on the Affordable Care Act, is he willing to share more on what he’d like to negotiate later? Is he willing to say specifically what he would like and when? Karoline Leavitt: Right. Look, the president is definitely committed to fixing and improving our healthcare system. You saw it again last week when he had one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world coming into the Oval Office and promising to lower drug prices by 200, 300, 100% in many cases for various types of drugs for American patients. That is a huge fix to a broken system that has been ripping off the American people for far too long. So, the president’s very committed to this. But right now, we need to reopen the federal government, and the president is remaining very firm in that position. Katherine: If the vote fails in the Senate today to reopen the government, would that trigger layoffs? Karoline Leavitt: Look, again, we hope that the vote will not fail because this administration wants to reopen the government. We don’t want to see people laid off. But unfortunately, if this shutdown continues, layoffs are going to be an unfortunate consequence of that. Katherine: Is there a timing for when that would happen? Karoline Leavitt: Well, look, we’ll see how the vote goes tonight. Katherine: And can you confirm, is the White House floating a proposal to cap Obamacare subsidies by denying them to new enrollees? Karoline Leavitt: I have not seen a proposal like that. Emily: Thanks, Karoline. The president said yesterday he was considering a phase-two approach to Venezuela. Is the president considering U.S. boots on the ground or any kind of support of overthrowing Maduro? Karoline Leavitt: I won’t get into any specific proposals that are being considered by the president and his national security team, but I think we’ve been pretty transparent and clear in the administration’s view of the illegitimate Maduro regime. And the president has taken very unprecedented, tough action to end the illegal trafficking of illicit drugs into our country from Maduro’s illegitimate regime.