Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.) confronted House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) over President Trump posting a deepfake video of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).
The fake video, altered with artificial intelligence, depicts Jeffries donning a sombrero and handlebar mustache and Schumer saying Democrats “have no voters left because of our woke, trans bulls—,” while mariachi music plays in the background.
When Dean asked Johnson about the video, which Trump posted to his Truth Social platform and the social platform X, the speaker said, “it wasn’t my style” and turned to walk away.
“Not your style? It’s disgraceful. It’s bigoted. It’s racist. You should call it out,” Dean responded, according to a video posted by CNN’s Manu Raju posted on X.
During an interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Tuesday evening, Johnson said that Trump posted the video “as a joke” and is not “the real issue.”
“The fight tonight is not about social media posts,” the speaker added. “The fight is about whether [Democrats will] keep the government open for the American people.”
The video also depicts Schumer saying, “if we give all these illegal aliens free healthcare, we might be able to get ‘em on our side so they can vote for us.”
Trump, Johnson, Vice President Vance and other GOP lawmakers have accused Democrats of prioritizing health care for immigrants without legal status amid government shutdown negotiations.
The Democratic-backed proposal to fund the government through October, which all 53 Republicans voted against on Tuesday, included a permanent extension of subsidies offered under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the restoration of $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts.
However, only immigrants lawfully in the U.S. are eligible to receive ACA subsidies and enroll in Medicaid. Immigrants without legal status are not eligible for either.
Medicaid payments for emergency services can be made to hospitals on behalf of immigrants without legal status. According to KFF, a non-partisan health policy research group, those payments accounted for less than 1 percent of total Medicaid spending in fiscal year 2023.
KFF also said last week that cuts to ACA subsidies and Medicaid resulting from the tax and budget law the president signed in July will lead to 1.4 million immigrants with legal status losing insurance coverage.
Jeffries and Schumer criticized Trump for posting the video. The former challenged the president to “say it to my face,” while the latter said Trump “is busy trolling away on the internet like a 10-year-old.”
Republican Sen. Roger Marshall (Kan.) told CNN on Monday that the president posted the video “in jest.”
