On Wednesday’s broadcast of NewsNation’s “Cuomo,” Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) said Democrats have “never” had leverage in the DHS shutdown and “we knew going into it that shutdown of DHS would have zero impact on forcing any kinds of changes at ICE.” He also stated that the shutdown has made the point that Democrats “don’t think” TSA agents should be paid.
Fetterman said, “[W]e knew going into it that shutdown of DHS would have zero impact on forcing any kinds of changes at ICE.” And “Democrats have no leverage, and we’ve never had that, because ICE already had the money that they needed from the Big, Beautiful Bill that I did not vote for. We had no leverage over it. And now they haven’t agreed to any significant kinds of changes that we were demanding.”
Later, he added, “The only thing we’re doing is we’re punishing people. I saw an interview, where it was Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) that’s like, well, what have you accomplished? It’s like, well, we’ve made a point that ICE is out of control. It’s like, yeah, okay, congratulations, we know that, and it also made a point that TSA agents that we don’t think you deserve to be paid.”
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