Thune: As Long as You Have Sanctuary Cities & Local Officials Doxing Agents, You Must Allow Masks
In an interview with Bret Baier on “Special Report,” Senate Majority Leader Sen. John Thune blamed Democrats for the DHS shutdown, accusing them of refusing to fund ICE and Border Patrol despite concessions from the White House.
BRET BAIER, HOST: Welcome back to Capitol Hill, continuing our conversation now with Senate Majority Leader John Thune. Meantime, there’s a partial government shutdown that continues when it comes to the Department of Homeland Security. The TSA lines getting longer in places like Atlanta. And we’re seeing a lot of — of potential problems, as more TSA agents don’t show up because they haven’t gotten a check. Is there a solution here? SENATE MAJORITY LEADER JOHN THUNE (R-SD): Well, there’s — there’s a solution. And that is to fund the government and not defund law enforcement, which is what the Democrats want to do. They are back to that theme, which didn’t serve them very well in the past. But they don’t want to fund ICE, you know, our customs and immigration enforcement. They don’t want to fund Border Patrol which is, you know, tasked with securing and making sure that the border’s secure, which is something during the — the Biden era, where millions of people just flocked into the country. And President Trump has secured it, shut it down. And now the Democrats don’t want to fund the agency that’s tasked with doing that. So but we’re on — you know, we waited 18 days for their latest offer. The White House put forward a good faith offer to fund DHS. Democrats waited until late last night, 18 days, to counter that. So we now have a counter from them. The White House has put out the things that they’ve been willing to — to do to address some of the concerns that Democrats have had with respect to reforms. And we just got a letter from Tom Homan and from James Braid at the White House that lays some of those out. And… (CROSSTALK) BAIER: Is there hope that that gets some movement? THUNE: Well I — it should. I mean, it — I can’t believe, again, the Democrats are defending a position that not only were there reforms in the initial bill, which they helped negotiate and then walked away from, but since then, the White House has negotiated a number of subsequent reforms, including body-worn cameras, more money for those audits, for those limitations on where ICE agents can go, like places like hospitals, schools, those sorts of things. And then — and also they’ve made a number of changes with respect to how, when they do these, when they’re conducting these operations, in how they’re identified and making sure that people know who — who this is. And that’s a concern, obviously, too. The one thing that the administration did not want to give on, and I think it’s a legitimate concern, is masks. As long as you have sanctuary cities and a lot of these locally elected officials who were encouraging doxxing of law enforcement officials, you know, you cannot — these are — these are people whose — who need to be protected. And they need to be able to conduct these operations and do their jobs in a safe way. And clearly, what some of the things the Democrats are asking for are — are non-starters. But I think the White House has come a long ways to address the concerns Democrats have had and — and suggested a number of reforms which, frankly, the Democrats in the Senate ought to take. I don’t understand it.
