Lemon LIVE at 5 | Trump Funding Freeze Failure - January 29th, 2025
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What happened when the OMB issued the federal funding freeze memo?
Anybody got a good song about chaos? Every day there's chaos. Maybe we should come up with one. Every day there's chaos. This is the chaos administration. Welcome to Lemon Live at Five, the Don Lemon Show. Boy, oh boy. I'm going to try to explain to you. Look, I am, as you know, a seasoned reporter. For years I've been in this business. And usually I have not a tough time explaining things to people. Good evening, everyone. But this one is a bit confusing because it looks like the White House done effed up again, to put it plainly. Confusion. Chaos. Okay, so I'm going to try to explain it to you. Then we're going to bring in an attorney. And I'm not sure the attorneys even know because I have been texting with attorneys and they're like, I have no idea really what's going on.
So if you know in the comments, let me know. Make sure you hit the thumbs up. Make sure you like. Make sure you subscribe to the channel. The more you hit the thumbs up, the more you like, the more you subscribe, more people become aware of our great elimination and our great conversations that we have here as we try to get you through the news. Okay, so tonight we have to talk about the chaos that's unfolding in Washington, and I'm talking about this funding freeze, which was our breaking news yesterday that we discussed ad nauseum. You thought it would be over, at least until this hearing on Monday that the judge said. Okay. So this funding freeze, a decision that sent shockwaves to the Congress and federal agencies and quite frankly, the entire country.
So how did we get here? All right, let me start a little breakdown here. This is how we got here. It started with a memo. Yes, one single memo was from the OMB. It outlined a sudden and sweeping freeze of federal grant spending. The freeze left crucial programs in limbo from cancer research to Medicaid. which is pretty important for people, right? To their lives. The uncertainty it created was crippling and people were scared and frightening that they wouldn't get their services that they need in order to stay healthy, stay alive, to feed their families. All right. State governments, contractors and agencies didn't know if their funding would be restored, revised or eliminated altogether. That is not just a bureaucratic headache.
That is a policy disaster. This is an administration disaster. Make note, that's not hyperbole. That's not opinion. This is a fact. It's a disaster. Lawyers immediately went before a judge and before said judge, they successfully obtained an injunction. They effectively paused the pause on spending. Are you following me? Anyone, anyone, are you following me? They paused the pause on spending. I'm going slow because there's a lot here, okay? That all happened yesterday. If you watch Living Live at Five every day, you know it because you watched it play out. And then today, the OMB, put out a statement saying their memo was rescinded. The memo stating that they wanted to pause federal spending. After the judge said, no, I'm putting a pause on that pause.
They came back and said, no, we are rescinding that memo. So yes, in one tweet, they did away with the funding freeze. They thought that, okay, it's over. Democrats declared victory. They saved Medicaid. They had saved cancer research and farm subsidies. But then, this is where it gets really interesting. That wasn't interesting enough, okay? Drama. But then the White House Press Secretary, Caroline Leavitt, announced the funding freeze was not rescinded. Only the memo from the OMB. The freeze was not rescinded. She's like, look, we just rescinded the memo. The freeze wasn't rescinded. OK, I'll show you all of it. So stand by. Stand back and stand by. So to be quite frank, no one knows what the hell is going on.
An entire administration of really clowns. I hate to say bad things about people, but it really is flamethrowers with flamethrowers. They they're unserious. They're being silly. They're acting like novices, like they're some college kids doing this, especially someone sending out a tweet like that.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What happened when the OMB issued the federal funding freeze memo?
0:20–11:30
2
How did the court immediately respond to the funding freeze memo?
11:30–12:54
3
Why did the OMB announce the memo was rescinded and what confusion followed?
12:54–15:45
4
How did the White House Press Secretary’s tweet complicate the rescission?
15:45–19:41
5
What legal perspective does guest Dave Ehrenberg provide about the freeze and judge’s injunction?
19:41–1:01:43