White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt joined a MAGA meltdown over the partial Homeland Security shutdown failing yet another Senate vote.
Leavitt, 28, said on Thursday that it was a “disgrace” that Democrats refuse to continue funding the department without reforms to ICE and other immigration enforcement agencies. Their demands follow federal immigration officers killing two U.S. citizens in January, numerous in-custody deaths of migrants, and chaos sown in cities across the country with Trump’s mass deportation crackdown.
“Democrats in Congress are intentionally hurting innocent Americans for purely political purposes,” Leavitt wrote on X, linking to a CBS News story about a father of three quitting his job as a TSA agent because he could not afford to go without pay any longer.
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung shared the same CBS story, writing, “The effects of the DEMOCRAT shutdown.”
Both Republicans and Democrats have played the blame game over DHS funding. Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman was the lone Democrat to vote with Republicans in favor of advancing a funding bill on Thursday. The bill needs 60 votes to advance, but received only 51.
Republican Sen. Joni Ernst was among those calling out Democrats without addressing their own role in the shutdown.
“For the FOURTH time, Democrats voted to keep @DHSgov shutdown,” she wrote. “As a result, 100,000 FEMA, TSA, Coast Guard, and cybersecurity professionals will continue working without pay. It’s past time to end the nonsense and put Americans FIRST!”
Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert, of Colorado, spoke similarly.
“Democrats are holding border security and airport safety hostage for their open-border, pro-criminal agenda,” she said, linking to a statement by Denver International Airport announcing that it was accepting gift card donations for its TSA staff.
Long security lines have cropped up across the country as agents are forced to work without pay, leading to a spike in agents calling in sick.
Democrats have held firm on their funding approval demands, including requiring officers to wear body cameras and barring the use of masks to conceal their identities while on assignment—requirements that local law enforcement already comply with in most of the country.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has argued this point, saying he does not wish to force federal workers to continue reporting to work without pay, but that he refuses to allow ICE to continue operating as is.
Schumer, a Democrat from New York, has pleaded with Republicans to approve funding for workers like the Coast Guard and TSA agents, but Republicans have demanded all-or-nothing.
“We know very simply that Democrats just want ICE to behave like any police department in America and use warrants and not wear masks,” Schumer said Wednesday while debating with Republican Majority Leader John Thune. “But we don’t have to tie that disagreement up and use people at the airports and American citizens as hostages and say, ‘We’re not going to fund FEMA.’”
Thune shot back that Democrats refused to fund any part of DHS—something Schumer says is not true.
Thune said, “So I assume the Democrat leader is aware of the fact that we have tried repeatedly to fund everything temporarily to allow the negotiations over the ICE budget to continue.”
Schumer responded, “I’m well aware, but that hasn’t worked. What can work?”
“And the reason is because the Democrats have blocked it,” Thune interjected.
Thursday’s failed vote means the blame game over DHS funding will continue indefinitely.
