Booker, Schiff deflect blame on shutdown as terror concerns rise across US
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif. and Cory Booker, D-N.J., deflected the charge when pressed on whether their party should vote Sunday to end the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown that has left workers without pay for weeks.
NBC’s Kristen Welker asked Schiff during “Meet the Press” on Sunday: “We’ve seen terrorist attacks in West Bloomfield, Michigan, and Norfolk, Virginia. This morning, the CEOs of the nation’s leading airlines and cargo companies wrote a letter to Congress urging them to end the shutdown, citing the importance of American safety at airlines.” “Is it the Democrats’ responsibility to withhold DHS funding because of the threat of terrorist attacks posed during this conflict?”
Schiff said Democrats want to separate ICE from the rest of the funding and have offered to do so multiple times to fund other agencies affected by the shutdown.
“We’ve proposed vote after vote, resolution after resolution, to reopen these agencies, to fund them — even as recently as this week — to reopen these agencies, to fund them, Republicans have rejected it. We’ve said, ‘Let’s defund ICE, let’s fund other agencies that protect the country,’ and Republicans have rejected them, one after another. We’ve refused to fund the TSA, we’ve refused to fund the Coast Guard, we’ve refused to fund FEMA. So Republicans control both the house and the presidency; they can’t really be blamed.” “It’s because of the minority party’s inability to govern themselves, especially when rejecting Democrats’ motions to reopen these institutions,” Schiff responded.
Cory Booker, a Democrat from New Jersey, speaks at a news conference on Thursday, March 5, 2026, in Washington, DC. Adam Schiff, a Democrat from California, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, September 17, 2025. (Valerie Plesch/Bloomberg via Getty Images; Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
TWO SHOOTINGS INTENSE DHS SITUATION AS GOP WARNED ABOUT INCREASING TERRORIST THREATS
CNN’s Jake Tapper confronted Booker with a similar question, asking: “Isn’t it time for Democrats to reopen and return DHS?”
Tapper said Democrats are “winning the debate” on ICE in some ways, pointing to the firing of Kristi Noem and Border Czar Tom Homan’s takeover in Minnesota.
“Democrats have tried many times to fund TSA, CISA, and the Coast Guard. Republicans have repeatedly refused to fund them,” Booker began.
Booker argued that ICE was still doing “reckless things,” adding: “I’m not going to approve another dollar for ICE, despite everything they’ve done. But we have to fund the TSA agents, the CISA, the Coast Guard that keep us safe, and it’s unacceptable that Republicans refuse to do that.”
A TSA agent puts a patch on his uniform at Miami International Airport on December 17, 2024 in Miami, Florida. (Joe Raedle)
DEMS VOTES TO KEEP DHS CLOSED DESPITE AIRPORT CHAOS, SLEEPER CELL THREAT IN IRAN
Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg also blamed Republicans in an interview with Tapper on Sunday.
“I think Republicans should stop blocking Democratic proposals to fund all of DHS, including TSA and other parts, except for parts that need to be negotiated, like ICE and Customs and Border Patrol,” he said.
Democrats on Capitol Hill accuse Republicans of moving away from attempts to scale back the partial government shutdown that began Feb. 14 and argue that the stalemate over Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) funding does not need to halt funding for other agencies.
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, D.R.I. He said last week that Democrats are “fully prepared to fund FEMA, TSA, the Coast Guard and others,” but that ICE continues to “misbehave.”
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, mocked what he saw as calls from Democrats to avoid deadlock.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE NEWS ON MEDIA AND CULTURE
Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) speaks with members of the media as he arrives at a Senate Finance Committee meeting to vote on the appointment of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the next Secretary of Health and Human Services on February 4, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty)
“This is extremely hypocritical because we have already funded ICE,” said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, noting that the agency received appropriations last year through Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill.
“So all they’re doing is hurting the air travel public through TSA. They’re hurting them, and they’re not accomplishing what they say they’re trying to accomplish. It’s a shame,” Cornyn said.
CLICK TO DOWNLOAD FOX NEWS APPLICATION
