NBC News White House correspondent Peter Alexander featured prominently into Tuesday’s White House press briefing, insisting in a heated exchange with press secretary Karoline Leavitt that immigrating illegally into the United States was not “criminal.”
Alexander said NBC News had found that 566 out of 1,179 migrants deport on Sunday had “no prior criminal record” and added, “Besides entering the country illegally, is the president still focused exclusively — which is a civil crime, not a it’s not criminal,” before Leavitt interjected to say, “It’s a federal crime.”
He subsequently added: “So I’m asking, though, he said he was going to focus on those violent offenders first. Are those violent offenders no longer the predicate for these people to be deported?”
Leavitt dismissed the line of questioning. “If you are an individual — a foreign national — who illegally enters the United States of America, you are by definition a criminal.”
Alexander moved on to a convoluted question about the economy, saying Trump ran on the premise that he would “lower prices” but that in “many cases” his policies “could raise prices.”
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“What particular actions are you referring to?” Leavitt asked. “That would be, for example, LIHEAP right now,” Alexander responded, referring to the low-income home energy assistance program,
“So you’re asking a hypothetical based on programs that you can’t even identify?” Leavitt said. Alexander then cited a a 52-page Office of Management and Budget memo issued on Tuesday that aimed to “freeze” some federal assistance programs, which some critics suggested might apply to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
“Well, I can’t tell you — just that since you guys have not identified — let’s do it together,” Alexander said. Just for Americans at home, Medicaid is not affected?”
Leavitt assured him that flagship federal assistance programs would not be affected. “Social Security, Medicare, welfare benefits, Medicaid, food stamps … will not be impacted by this federal pause,” Leavitt said.