Vice President JD Vance was invited by the Trump administration to speak in the White House briefing room and make the untrue claim that Democrats refusal to continue funding the government was due to their attempts to provide health coverage to citizens who were not authorized to be there.
Leading Democrats retorted that their goal is to merely extend the Affordable Care Act's financing for health care subsidies in order to prevent a nationwide increase in insurance prices for American households.
Although neither side promised to back down, the ongoing finger pointing increased the likelihood that the economic suffering would expand, endangering hundreds of thousands of jobs and essential services.
In a recorded message, press secretary Karoline Leavitt told callers to the White House comment line: "Democrats in Congress have shut down the federal government because they care more about funding health care for illegal immigrants than they care about serving you, the American people."
On their websites, a number of federal agencies made obviously politicized claims that Democrats were to blame for the shutdown.
President Donald Trump's deepfake video of House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries wearing a sombrero and a fake mustache, which Jeffries called prejudiced, was revived by the White House to support its claim.
Despite Vance's assurance that the "sombrero memes will stop" when the government reopens, they played it again in the White House briefing room.
In response, Jeffries posted a meme of himself on top of a picture of Vance with long, curly hair and a chubby head.
"JD Vance believes that because of a Sombrero meme, we will give up to the Republican attempt to destroy healthcare. In a post on X, Jeffries stated, "Not happening Bro."
