White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt refused to say whether President Donald Trump's order freezing federal grant funds would withhold health care benefits from Medicaid recipients.
During her first White House briefing, ABC's Peter Alexander asked Leavitt about the funding freeze.
"So you're asking a hypothetical based on programs that you can't even identify," Leavitt quipped.
"Well, just to be clear, since you guys haven't identified, let's do it together, just for Americans at home, Medicaid, is that affected?" Alexander pressed.
"I gave you a list of examples, Social Security, Medicare, welfare benefits, food stamps, that will not be impacted by this federal pause," Leavitt replied, dodging the question.
Another reporter later sought to clarify Trump's position on Medicaid benefits.
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"It wasn't clear to me whether you were saying that no Medicaid would be cut off, obviously a lot of this goes to states before it goes to individuals and so forth, so are you guaranteeing here that no individual now on Medicaid would see a cut off because of a pause?" the reporter asked.
"I'll check back on that and get back to you," Leavitt said.
Trump's federal funding freeze was set to take effect at 5 p.m. on Tuesday.
Watch the video below from C-SPAN.
