CNN brutally fact-checks Jasmine Crockett for peddling debunked ballroom hoax
Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas made a claim so egregious about the ongoing East Wing renovations at the White House that even CNN had to fact-check the lawmaker.
Crockett was accusing President Donald Trump of neglecting Americans during the government shutdown, falsely claiming that the construction of the new East Wing ballroom was his "main priority." Crockett was quickly corrected by CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins, who clarified the original context of press secretary Karoline Leavitt's response.
Crockett is not the only high-profile Democrat who has misled about the White House ballroom.
"I have no idea," Crockett said in response to Collins. "I mean, you started off talking about how the president is in Japan. The president has time to do everything but what he needs to focus on."
"In fact, we heard the press secretary say that his main priority is the ballroom," Crockett added. "The ballroom that no one asked for. The ballroom that requires him to destroy historic pieces of the White House."
Collins responded to Crockett's wildly out-of-context claim, noting that Leavitt was responding to a question about additional White House renovations and not about the president's general list of priorities.
"That context of the comment from Karoline Leavitt, she was asked if the president was working on any other renovations when it came to the White House, and she was saying his focus was the ballroom," Collins replied.
RELATED: 'These people are sick': Trump admin slams top Dem for justifying shutdown suffering
Crockett is not the only high-profile Democrat who has misled about the White House ballroom. Former vice presidential candidate and current Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) also echoed the claim that the ballroom is Trump's top priority, insinuating that the project is taxpayer-funded.
As Leavitt pointed out the week prior, Trump's ballroom is entirely funded by private donors, with the president himself even pitching in to finance the project.
"He's a builder at heart, clearly," Leavitt replied when asked if Trump was weighing any additional construction projects. "His heart and his mind is always churning about how to improve things here on the White House grounds. But at this moment in time, of course, the ballroom really is the president's main priority."
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Senate Democrats senselessly block GOP bill that would pay workers during government shutdown
Senate Democrats have doubled down on the government shutdown, blocking a bill that would make sure federal workers wouldn't miss any more paychecks.
Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin proposed the bill on the Senate floor that would ensure service members and federal personnel who are currently working would get their paychecks during the Democrat-induced shutdown. Only three Democrats in the entire Senate joined Republicans to pay federal workers.
'They want to shut down the government.'
The bill ultimately failed, falling six votes short of the 60-vote threshold. Democratic Sens. Jon Ossoff of Georgia, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, and Raphael Warnock of Georgia bucked 45 of their colleagues and joined 51 Republicans in support of the bill.
"We've heard Democrats criticize [Johnson's] bill because it would provide pay only to those working through the shutdown," Senate Majority Leader John Thune said in a post on X. "They say they want everyone to get paid. Well, I have great news: the clean CR would pay everyone. We just need five more Democrats to support it."
RELATED: 'These people are sick': Trump admin slams top Dem for justifying shutdown suffering
As Thune and his allies at the White House have pointed out, Democrats are the ones who have consistently voted against passing a clean continuing resolution to keep the government open. At the same time, Democrats are demanding Congress renegotiate Obamacare subsidies that aren't set to expire until the end of the year and insisting on passing their hyper-partisan $1.5 trillion spending bill.
"I'll just point out the irony in Democrats holding the government and the American public hostage over a health care system that they created," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during Thursday's briefing. "The health care system was called Obamacare. Why? Because Democrats and President Obama implemented it. And Republicans have always said it's a broken system, yes, but they caused it. And now they want to shut down the government to fix it?
"We need to open the government, and then we can have these very important conversations about health care," she continued.
RELATED: Democrat senator blocks vote to end shutdown to protest Trump's 'authoritarianism' in drawn-out rant
Republicans have remained consistent on the shutdown fight. Their resolution is a clean, nonpartisan funding bill that keeps spending at the same rates Democrats voted for over a dozen times in the past. Thune has even indicated he would be willing to give Democrats a vote on the Obamacare subsidies so long as they vote to open the government.
Even still, just three Democrats have mustered up the courage to consistently vote with Republicans to reopen the government.
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Scott Bessent has joined the effort to uncover funders of Antifa violence, Karoline Leavitt says
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt gave an encouraging update on the Trump administration’s efforts to uncover those who may be funding Antifa attacks in the U.S.
President Donald Trump previously ordered his officials to use the power of the government to root out who might be funding Antifa.
'We will continue to get to the bottom of who is funding these organizations in this organized anarchy against our country and our government.'
Leavitt said Monday during the White House media briefing that Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent had joined the effort and explained how he would be able to help the cause.
"The financial backing of these groups, particularly Antifa, is certainly something the administration is looking into aggressively," she said.
"The federal government has never really been mobilized or tasked with doing that. So we're kind of kick-starting that into gear," she added. "The FBI is working on it alongside the White House's Homeland Security Task Force. We have our intelligence community looking into this as well. And even the secretary of treasury is involved with these matters since they are financial in nature."
On Friday Leavitt said that the administration was looking into the possibility of cutting off all federal funding to Portland after violence continued to increase at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility.
"We will continue to get to the bottom of who is funding these organizations in this organized anarchy against our country and our government," she continued in her statement Monday. "It's a question the American people have been begging the answer for, for many years, and we're committed to uncovering it."
RELATED: Liberal nonprofits are panicking over threats from Trump after Kirk killing
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Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas issued a statement of support for the development.
"Good," wrote Roy on social media. "Congress can, and should, back up the Trump administration's efforts by forming its own select committee to investigate who is funding these groups. Enough is enough."
Liberal critics claim that Trump is misusing the powers of the government to punish and persecute his political opponents.
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