By Harold Hutchison

Copyright dailycaller

Republican strategist Scott Jennings called out former Hillary Clinton campaign aide Karen Finney on Wednesday over illegal immigrants receiving Medicaid.

The federal government entered a partial shutdown at 12:01 a.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday after the Senate failed to pass a stopgap funding bill on Tuesday — falling short of the 60 votes needed to overcome a Democratic filibuster. Jennings and Finney clashed over one of the demands Democrats made during the negotiations after Finney claimed illegal immigrants didn’t receive Medicaid. (RELATED: Mike Johnson, Fox News Host Jostle Over Whether Democrats Would Fund Healthcare For Illegals)

“Who do you think pays when they go to the emergency room? It’s the Medicaid emergency program,” Jennings said on CNN, prompting the back and forth with Finney. CNN’s “The Source” host Kaitlan Collins, tried to step in, with Jennings adding, “You guys are conflating. You guys are conflating these issues.”

“No, we’re not, Scott,” Finney claimed, with Jennings responding, “You’re conflating these issues.”

“You’re conflating, and you’re being dishonest with the American people about this because you know it’s unpopular,” Finney claimed.

“The subsidies are a separate issue,” Jennings responded. “Medicaid and the ObamaCare stuff are two different issues.”

“The subsidies may get negotiated over time. But what Democrats want to do is roll back what the Republican Medicaid reforms were,” Jennings said. “They want — look, I don’t understand why everybody’s so mad. For time immemorial, Democrats have argued that it’s good, it’s good for illegal immigrants to get Medicaid. Every candidate for president in 2020 raised their hand for it. In the Big, Beautiful Bill debate, they argued it was good policy. I can’t believe there’s an about-face in the Democratic Party on it today.”

Vice President JD Vance claimed Wednesday on Fox News that Democrats want to bring back a pair of Biden-era programs that he said “explicitly gave the taxpayer healthcare money to illegal aliens.” Both of the programs ended under the second Trump administration.

Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters of California appeared to admit that her party was fighting to secure health benefits for illegal immigrants in a heated interview with a reporter on Tuesday.

Democrats have demanded over $1 trillion in funding for various left-wing priorities besides health care-related issues, including restoring funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CBP), which will shut down after its funding was clawed back in a rescissions package passed in July.

After additional back-and-forth with Finney, Jennings then brought up the case of Ian Andre Roberts, the former superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools, who was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and was registered to vote in Maryland.

“They also can’t register to vote, but we just found one in Maryland who was running the Des Moines school system!” Jennings said, with Finney saying, “Oh, one? Oh, my God, one?! Scott?!”

“I mean, I’m telling you, you guys say these things can’t happen, and then they happen,” Jennings said.

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