Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt Briefs Members of the Media, Oct. 3, 2025

October 3, 2025 · The White House · 0:34:19

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt briefed the media on October 3, 2025, day three of the government shutdown. “The Democrats continue to recklessly hold the American people hostage over their demands to give illegal aliens free health care,” she said, arguing Republicans were unified behind the same clean funding bill Democrats had approved in March.

She laid out the shutdown’s personal impacts as the administration stated them: the 1.3 million men and women of the armed services not being paid, and military families already seeking food assistance — citing Military Times reporting of a line of cars at the Armed Services YMCA food pantry distribution near Fort Hood in Texas. Asked whether layoffs of federal workers would proceed even if the shutdown ended, she said: “Layoffs are an unfortunate consequence of a government shutdown, and it’s something the administration is examining.” The briefing also took questions on the FDA’s approval of a new abortion pill.

Why it matters

The October 3 briefing is the administration’s shutdown case at day three: the clean-bill argument, the unpaid-troops figure, and the layoff warning, all stated from the podium. It is recorded on the Elections & Governance hub.

Scoreboard watch

The shutdown’s day-three posture — including the examined federal layoffs, as stated by the Press Secretary — is recorded here as a candidate item for the weekly scoreboard.

Sources: The White House, “Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt Briefs Members of the Media, Oct. 3, 2025,” The White House, October 3, 2025 (official upload, embedded above). All figures and characterizations as stated at the briefing.