On Wednesday morning, the first day of the government shutdown, Morning Joe stooped as low as it could to mock House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) over the Bible and lie about Republicans exposing illegal immigrant health care coverage.
Co-host Joe Scarborough first gave Johnson the moniker “Mr. I Rule By The Bible,” which Mika Brzezinski chuckled at but quickly collected herself.
Scarborough continued to pick the lowest-hanging fruit he could find, which was debasing Johnson’s faith by connecting it to his alleged lies:
So I'm wondering where in the Bible does Mike Johnson read Jesus saying, “You know what, tell the truth, except, well, when it might serve you well politically, and then just lie. And why don't you, while you're lying, why don't you spread lies about those who are on the outskirts of society? Those who are suffering right now the most? Why don't you lie about the weakest among us, Mikey?”
Not a great look for the MSNBC host who grew up going to a Baptist church. But it’s not as if he’s known for taking Christian truths to heart.
Scarborough seemed to hedge his dismissal of Johnson’s argument, suggesting the illegal immigrants weren’t getting “Cadillac benefits”:
I mean that — but that's what he's doing. He's spreading the lie. The President's spreading the lie. All the Republicans are lying through their teeth. And any podcaster today that spreads this lie, anybody on other news networks that spreads this lie, knows exactly what they're doing. There is no Democratic plan to give healthcare Cadillac benefits to illegal immigrants. It's not even legal.
Of course it’s not legal. That doesn’t mean it’s not happening. Republicans were using the fact of illegal immigrants receiving health care as part of a broader argument for why they believe Democrats are responsible for the government shutdown.
Brzezinski relieved Scarborough from his spoke as if she was the purely-factual authority on the issue:
Well, as you and John Bresnahan just pointed out, the GOP is repeating what the New York Times calls “a new and misleading talking point,” that “Democrats are shutting down the government to fund free health care for unauthorized immigrants.” The false assertion — false — has been repeated by Vice President JD Vance and Speaker Mike Johnson, along with the President himself.
Undocumented immigrants have long been prohibited from taxpayer-funded Medicaid coverage, except for treatment in emergency medical situations. They also do not qualify for Medicaid and Medicare. The fight on Capitol Hill is over reimbursements that allow hospitals to recoup the loss, the costs of emergency care, in certain cases. The President's massive spending bill had limited those federal dollars, which is what Republicans are looking to keep in place.
Can’t expect doctors to give up the Hippocratic Oath. But as the White House had outlined, liberal states have abused the system to effectively steal from the American people. Forget about overspending. Democrats do not care about fiscal responsibility — meaning it didn’t matter where the money goes so long as it’s being spent.
Co-host Willie Geist gave a final thrust to really sell the idea that absolutely no one was wrongfully receiving health care:
And we should underline again, Bres, there is a federal law that says people here without legal status cannot get taxpayer money for health care under Medicaid, Medicare or the ACA. It's against federal law, and Democrats say they have no plans to change that. They don’t know where this made-up talking point is coming from.
We all do, Willie. It’s widely known that liberal states abuse funds awarded by Medicaid by providing health care treatment to trespassers. They did this in hopes of migrants (legal or not) voting to keep Democrats in power.
The transcript is below. Click "expand" read:
MSNBC’s Morning Joe
October 1, 2025
6:18:35 a.m. EST
(…)
JOE SCARBOROUGH: And now it's happening again. This time, the lie in the Speaker of the House, Mr. I Rule By The Bible, spreading an unambiguous lie, an unambiguous lie, going into this government shutdown. They're lying to their own supporters. They're lying to their own constituents. They're lying to their own followers, saying, “Democrats want to shut down the government because they want to give great health care benefits to illegal immigrants.”
It's a total lie. So I'm wondering where in the Bible does Mike Johnson read Jesus saying, “You know what, tell the truth, except, well, when it might serve you well politically, and then just lie. And why don't you, while you're lying, why don't you spread lies about those who are on the outskirts of society? Those who are suffering right now the most? Why don't you lie about the weakest among us, Mikey?”
I mean that — but that's what he's doing. He's spreading the lie. The President's spreading the lie. All the Republicans are lying through their teeth. And any podcaster today that spreads this lie, anybody on other news networks that spreads this lie, knows exactly what they're doing.
There is no Democratic plan to give healthcare Cadillac benefits to illegal immigrants. It's not even legal.
MIKA BRZEZINKSI: Well, as you and John Bresnahan just pointed out, the GOP is repeating what the New York Times calls “a new and misleading talking point,” that “Democrats are shutting down the government to fund free health care for unauthorized immigrants.” The false assertion — false — has been repeated by Vice President JD Vance and Speaker Mike Johnson, along with the President himself.
Here's what is important to note. Undocumented immigrants have long been prohibited from taxpayer-funded Medicaid coverage, except for treatment in emergency medical situations. They also do not qualify for Medicaid and Medicare. The fight on Capitol Hill is over reimbursements that allow hospitals to recoup the loss, the costs of emergency care, in certain cases. The President's massive spending bill had limited those federal dollars, which is what Republicans are looking to keep in place.
As CNBC reports, Democrats say they are only trying to restore health care coverage options that were available to some immigrants before those options were eliminated by President Trump's so-called One Big, Beautiful tax bill this year. Steve Rattner, can you add to that and talk about the economic impact of the shutdown?
STEVE RATTNER: Yeah, Mika, this is completely misleading on the part of the Republicans. And, interestingly, this provision’s been around for four years, and I don' recall anybody talking about how there was waste, fraud, and abuse. That's the Republican favorite talking point.
BRZEZINSKI: Yeah.
RATTNER: Of course, when they want to attack a program, they say it's all waste, fraud, and abuse.
This is just subsidies for normal health care for normal Americans who are down — further down in the economic ladder to make health care affordable when they buy it on the ACA exchanges. That is the core of the fight. The Democrats have asked for some other stuff, but obviously there's a negotiation and probably most of that won't happen. This is at the core of it.
Essentially — let me just step back and put this also—
BRZEZINSKI: Yeah.
RATTNER: — in perspective. Without ever — in the first term, Trump talked all the time about overturning Obamacare, repealing Obamacare, and then famously John McCain voted against it, it stayed in place. You have not heard the Republicans talk about repealing Obamacare for a long time, but that is what they are doing. In the One Big Beautiful Bill, there are a bunch of changes in Medicaid, and then you have this provision that —
BRZEZINSKI: Go ahead, keep going —
RATTNER: Then there was this provision that did not get expired. And when you add it all up, all the stuff they've done in about One Big Beautiful Bill plus this, would reduce the number of Americans who got health care under Obamacare by 70 percent. It would effectively unwind 70 percent of Obamacare in this very stealth way without ever saying that's what they're doing.
BRZEZINSKI: And is this also the cuts that some of them come after the midterms?
RATTNER: Yes. The Medicaid cuts —
BRZEZINSKI: So people don't feel them until after the midterms.
RATTNER: The Medicaid cuts come after the midterms. But for something like 20 million Americans who are buying their insurance through the exchanges which is what this fight is about —
BRZEZINSKI: Right
RATTNER: - you got Biden exchanges, you're going to feel it right away. The health insurance companies have already filed their premiums for next year, and the average premium increase will be 18 percent because of this expiration of this provision. So even the ones who still don't get subsidies, still buy on the exchanges, are going to see much higher premiums right away, not after the midterms.
WILLIE GEIST: And we should underline again, Bres, there is a federal law that says people here without legal status cannot get taxpayer money for health care under Medicaid, Medicare or the ACA. It's against federal law, and Democrats say they have no plans to change that. They don’t know where this made-up talking point is coming from.
(…)
