Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin laid into Chuck Schumer after the Senate Minority Leader angered President Donald Trump by saying “nobody respects” ICE agents.
Senate Republicans this week advanced a plan to fund ICE despite ongoing opposition by Democrats who want more guardrails on the agency.
The standoff has led to a partial government shutdown that has run a record 68 days. Mullin, who took over the job from Kristi Noem last month, raged at Schumer in a Fox News interview on Thursday.
“Chuck Schumer, no one respects you. The definition of a lying scumbag politician, that is you. You would be the definition if you Googled you right now,” Mullin, a former MMF fighter, said.
He was responding to the New York lawmaker, who was blasted by Trump for dismissing the immigration agencies on the Senate floor late Wednesday, claiming “nobody respects” ICE and Customs and Border Patrol.
The DHS secretary went on to accuse the New York senator of wanting “open borders” and supporting criminals before making what appeared to be a veiled threat.
“For you to say that is so disrespectful to the law enforcement that is out there protecting you,” Mullin claimed. “Because he has a detail with him. How about he walks around these city streets without a detail. I wonder how safe he would feel.”
Democrats have not opposed funding all law enforcement, but they have been demanding changes for ICE after agents killed U.S. citizens earlier this year.
Despite pushback from Senate Democrats, Republicans advanced legislation paving the way for another $140 billion in funding for DHS.
Republicans are looking to skirt Democrats by using the so-called reconciliation process, which would allow the bill to pass without needing support from Senate Democrats.
Trump on Thursday seized on Schumer’s comments about no one respecting ICE in a post on Truth Social.
“Wow! Cryin’ Chuck Schumer just said, for the whole World to hear, that ‘NOBODY RESPECTS BORDER PATROL OR ICE.’ That is one of the most egregious, incorrect, unpatriotic, and dangerous statements I have EVER heard from a ‘professional’ politician,” Trump wrote.
The president went on to write in call caps, “HE MUST IMMEDIATELY APOLOGIZE TO THESE GREAT PATRIOTS, AND I MEAN NOW!”
But Schumer doubled down on his opposition to giving DHS another $140 billion on Thursday and argued Republicans will be “accountable in November.”
Recent polling has shown that support for immigration officials in the U.S. has dropped dramatically after the Trump administration surged ICE agents to Minnesota. A PBS News/NPR/Marist poll in February found six in ten Americans disapprove of the job ICE is doing.
A Fox News poll conducted in late February and early March found 58 percent of voters disapprove of ICE, up from 51 percent that disapproved last September. Meanwhile, it found that 46 percent want Congress to reduce funding for the agency, while just 20 percent want it increased.
