Radio host Charlamagne tha God wants to know why folks are “raising hell” about “gang members being sent away” following the deportation of more than 250 alleged illegal gang members.
During “The Breakfast Club” <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azcI8tlH1Cc">radio show</a> on Tuesday, the hosts discussed comments made by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt about the Trump administration’s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/these-are-the-monsters-trump-admin-deported-over-250-gang-members-to-el-salvador">deportation</a> of more than 250 illegal alien gang members to El Salvador over the weekend. Those prisoners included 21 MS-13 gang members and more than 230 Tren de Aragua members, Leavitt noted on Monday. Trump’s administration said it has <a href="https://dailycaller.com/2025/03/15/donald-trump-invokes-alien-enemies-act-wartime-powers-proclamation-targets-venezuela-tren-de-aragua-gangs-apprehension-detention-removal/">used</a> his legal authority of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport them.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="The Breakfast Club FULL SHOW 03-18-25" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/azcI8tlH1Cc?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
“This [is] why I want to know more when it comes to the deportations,” Charlamagne said. “Because deporting illegal immigrants who have committed crimes, I understand that. So why are folks fighting about gang members being sent away?”
“Like, there are some other deportation cases, I’m sure they could be fighting about, like folks who’ve been in this country for a long time, not committing no crimes, paying taxes, but have gotten caught up in the process,” he added. “Those are folks they should be fighting for. Why are they raising hell about a gang being deported?”
One of the cohosts on the show, DJ Envy, agreed and said he understands the idea of “due process,” but added, “If they a gang member and they have warrants, nah. Like who are we fighting for?”
“Are we fighting for good people or are we fighting for people that&#8217;ve been paying their taxes … or are we fighting for gang members?” he added.
On Saturday, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg issued an order demanding that the deportations cease. The Trump administration ignored this order, and has since said that the flights were already in the air when the order was issued, as previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/unafraid-to-double-down-karoline-leavitt-addresses-viral-videos-showing-deportations-of-illegals">reported</a>. The White House is arguing that the judge did not have any “lawful basis” for such an order.
A group of Democratic senators also issued a <a href="https://www.durbin.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/durbin-padilla-booker-welch-statement-on-trump-invoking-the-alien-enemies-act-to-target-immigrants-without-due-process">statement</a> condemning Saturday’s deportations and Trump invoking &#8220;the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport noncitizens without due process,” it read. 
“This attempt to use an archaic wartime law—not used since World War II—for immigration enforcement is yet another unlawful and brazen power grab,&#8221; it added. &#8220;Let’s be clear: we are not at war, and immigrants are not invading our country. Furthermore, courts determine whether people have broken the law—not a president acting alone, and not immigration agents picking and choosing who gets imprisoned or deported … These protections are there to help ensure U.S. citizens aren’t wrongfully deported, or people who haven’t committed a crime aren’t wrongfully punished,” the statement continued.
Mary Margaret Olohan contributed to this piece.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/charlamagne-tha-god-blasts-dem-governor-for-focusing-on-losing-issue-of-trans-identifying-athletes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Charlamagne Tha God Blasts Dem Governor For Focusing On ‘Losing’ Issue Of Trans-Identifying Athletes</a>

BookCon 2017

Charlamagne Tha God Asks Why Anyone’s ‘Raising Hell’ Over ‘Gang Members Being Sent Away’

Celebrities

Charlamagne Tha God

Democrats

Donald Trump

Entertainment

Illegal Immigration

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) ridiculed Americans who dare to suggest that people should be allowed to keep what they earn, promising that government was there to stop them from doing so.
Schumer, who made an appearance Tuesday on ABC&#8217;s &#8220;The View,&#8221; spent much of the broadcast on his heels playing defense as the hosts grilled him over his last-minute support for the Republican-led Continuing Resolution that passed Friday and will fund the federal government through September.
During one segment, however, he paused to mock American conservatives and business owners who have the audacity to argue that they should be able to keep what they&#8217;ve earned and operate the businesses they&#8217;ve built in the way that they see fit.
WATCH:
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Dem Senate leader Chuck Schumer mocks Americans who want to keep their hard-earned income and praises the government as a &quot;barrier&quot; to them: &quot;You know what their attitude is, &#39;I made my money all by myself. How dare your government take my money from me?&#39; &#8230; They hate… <a href="https://t.co/vb4oDxPQ3V">pic.twitter.com/vb4oDxPQ3V</a>
&mdash; Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) <a href="https://twitter.com/NickFondacaro/status/1902027452676718692?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 18, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;You know what their attitude is?&#8221; Schumer asked, and then answered his own question in mocking tones: &#8220;&#8216;I made my money all by myself. How dare your government take my money from me? I don&#8217;t want to pay taxes.&#8217; Or, &#8216;I built my company with my bare hands. How dare your government tell me how I should treat my customers, my – the land and water that I own, or my employees?'&#8221;
&#8220;They hate government, government is a barrier to people. A barrier to stop them from doing things,&#8221; Schumer continued, raising his arms and shaking both fists. &#8220;They want to destroy it. We are not letting them do it, and we&#8217;re united!&#8221;
Despite Schumer&#8217;s claims, the Democratic Party has not appeared united of late. In the aftermath of Friday&#8217;s CR vote, a number of House Democrats and media personalities have come out and publicly criticized Schumer, arguing that he &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/i-think-you-caved-schumer-gets-an-absolute-grilling-on-the-view" target="_blank" rel="noopener">caved</a>&#8221; and suggesting that he might not be the right person to lead the Democrats in the Senate.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) led all but one Democrat in the lower chamber (Rep. Jared Golden of Maine) to vote against the CR, and while he is not normally one to be critical of Schumer, refused to answer when asked whether he believed Schumer was fit to continue leading in the Senate. &#8220;Next question,&#8221; was all he would say.

Chuck Schumer

Schumer Attacks Americans Who Think They Should Get To Keep What They Earn

Charles Schumer

Congress

Politics

Taxes

On Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/chuck-schumer" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chuck Schumer</a> (D-NY) insisted that he is &#8220;best&#8221; suited to lead Democrats in the upper chamber as he faces a crisis of confidence in his party after <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/senate-clears-key-hurdle-to-avert-shutdown-after-schumer-surrenders" target="_blank" rel="noopener">refusing</a> to vote in favor of blocking a Republican-backed stopgap bill to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/senate-officially-sends-funding-bill-to-trumps-desk-after-dems-cave" target="_blank" rel="noopener">avert</a> a partial government shutdown last week.
&#8220;I&#8217;m the best leader for the Senate,&#8221; Schumer said during a &#8220;CBS Mornings&#8221; interview when pressed on calls for him to step aside. &#8220;We have a lot of leaders — you know, when you don&#8217;t have a president, there&#8217;s not one leader of the party. There are lots of them. We have a lot of good people, but we — I am the best at keep — winning Senate seats. I&#8217;ve done it in 2005 to — just in 2020, no one thought we&#8217;d take back the Senate; under my leadership we took it.&#8221;
Democrats offered a four-week continuing resolution (CR) as an alternative to the GOP&#8217;s six-month measure, claiming it would give both sides time to reach a bipartisan agreement. However, Schumer declared he would not vote to stop the Republican funding patch, saying that allowing a shutdown would empower President Donald Trump to keep cutting programs as part of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) effort led by Elon Musk.
Immense blowback within the party ensued.
Liberal groups called for Schumer to <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/15/dem-group-calls-schumer-step-down-minority-leader-spending-bill-vote-00232194" target="_blank" rel="noopener">step down</a> as Senate minority leader. Some Democrats in Congress openly rejected his stance in the spending fight, while House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) notably <a href="https://x.com/greg_price11/status/1900607500472275423" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> &#8220;next question&#8221; when asked if he had confidence in Schumer. And CNN <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/13/politics/ocasio-cortez-schumer-democratic-shutdown-plan/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) was mobilizing Democrats <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/aoc-rises-against-schumer-amid-shutdown-meltdown" target="_blank" rel="noopener">against</a> Schumer’s plan and noted some colleagues were privately urging the leftist firebrand to consider a primary challenge against him.
Schumer, who just <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/chuck-schumer-scraps-book-tour-citing-security-concerns-amid-backlash-over-cr-vote" target="_blank" rel="noopener">scrapped</a> book tour appearances while citing safety concerns, claimed that he and Jeffries have a &#8220;plan&#8221; to counter Trump. As an example, Schumer referred to a <a href="https://www.democrats.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/schumer-jeffries-joint-statement-on-medicaid-day-of-action" target="_blank" rel="noopener">joint statement</a> that he and Jeffries issued on Tuesday morning touting a &#8220;Medicaid Day of Action&#8221; they claimed would &#8220;push back&#8221; against the &#8220;extreme&#8221; Republican budget. The Senate minority leader added that they would highlight a variety of issues, such as tariffs.
&#8220;It&#8217;s beginning to work,&#8221; Schumer said. &#8220;His numbers have come down. If we keep at it, every day relentless fighting, and showing how they&#8217;re hurting people so badly, Trump&#8217;s numbers will get much lower and his both popularity but also his effectiveness will decline.&#8221;
Schumer will have his work cut out for him.
A national survey from NBC found that Trump and his second-term administration reached a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/yuge-poll-numbers-for-trump-president-cracks-right-direction-threshold-not-seen-since-2004" target="_blank" rel="noopener">significant milestone</a>, with 44% of Americans saying they believed the United States was &#8220;headed in the right direction&#8221; — the highest level since early 2004 when George W. Bush was president. Meanwhile, the same poll <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/yuge-poll-numbers-for-trump-president-cracks-right-direction-threshold-not-seen-since-2004" target="_blank" rel="noopener">found</a> just 27% of respondents had a positive view of the Democrats. A survey from CNN that <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/16/politics/cnn-poll-democrats/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">showed</a> their party at 29% favorability.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Chuck Schumer on Democrats&#039; future, Senate leadership, Israeli strikes and more" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gLTJzHdOoUo?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer

Embattled Schumer Crowns Himself ‘The Best Leader For The Senate’

Government Shutdown

Spending Bill

U.S. Senate

Democrats are openly criticizing party leadership after they got steamrolled in budget negotiations, President Donald Trump unleashed strikes on terrorist targets in Yemen, and two astronauts stranded on the International Space Station for months prepare for their journey home.
It’s Monday, March 17, and this is news you need to know to start your week. If you&#8217;d rather listen to your news, today&#8217;s edition of the Morning Wire podcast can be heard below:
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<h2>Dems in Disarray</h2>
<div id="attachment_892617" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-892617" class="wp-image-892617 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Schumer-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Schumer-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Schumer-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Schumer-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Schumer-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Schumer-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Schumer-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Schumer-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />(Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)</div>
Topline: Congress narrowly avoided a government shutdown this weekend after a stunning turn that saw Democratic leaders give in to Republican demands.
On Friday, Republicans passed a continuing resolution through the Senate, which will fund the government for the next seven months. The bill had already passed through the House but could have been stalled in the Senate by a filibuster. The deadline to avoid a government shutdown was midnight on Friday. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who had been vocally opposed to the bill, reversed himself at the last minute along with seven other Democrats, including John Fetterman (PA), Kristen Gillibrand (NY), Dick Durbin (IL) and Gary Peters (MI).
Context: Much of the saber-rattling surrounding the bill was driven by criticism of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), President Trump’s memetic initiative for cutting government spending headed by Elon Musk. Critics of DOGE have claimed that the executive branch is overstepping its constitutional authority and wanted to leverage a potential shutdown to rein in their activities.
However, behind closed doors, many Congressional Democrats argued that they would receive the lion’s share of the blame for a government shutdown. Democrats are also in a tenuous position politically, as recent polls have found that public perception of the Democratic Party has reached record lows. A recent CNN poll found that just 29% of Americans have a favorable view of Democrats, the lowest number since the survey began in 1992. Recent NBC polling is even more grim for Democrats, finding only 27% of Americans approve of the party.
Some Democrats also concluded that an attempt to force a shutdown to protect their spending priorities could backfire since the president would have more authority to curb government spending and furlough or fire workers he deemed non-essential.
“A shutdown would allow DOGE to shift into overdrive,” Schumer said, explaining his reversal. “It would give Donald Trump and DOGE the keys to the city, state, and country.”
Backlash: Democrats in both chambers publicly slammed Schumer and the Senate Democrats who voted with him. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), for example, said Schumer’s effort “only makes matters worse.” In perhaps the most remarkable example, Schumer’s counterpart in the House, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), all but threw Schumer under the bus, saying, “House Democrats will not be complicit. We remain strongly opposed to the partisan spending bill.”
&nbsp;
<h2>War and Peace</h2>
<div id="attachment_892619" style="width: 908px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-892619" class="wp-image-892619 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Bomber-Formation-898x576.jpg" alt="" width="898" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Bomber-Formation-898x576.jpg 898w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Bomber-Formation-300x192.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Bomber-Formation-768x493.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Bomber-Formation-1536x985.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Bomber-Formation-2048x1314.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 898px) 100vw, 898px" />(Photo by Gary Hershorn/Getty Images)</div>
Topline: The Trump administration took drastic action over the weekend to advance its foreign policy objectives, attacking Iranian proxies in the Middle East while making peace overtures to Russia to end the ongoing war with Ukraine.
The Middle East: On Saturday, President Trump announced that the United States had launched a strike on Iran-backed Houthi terrorists in Yemen, killing at least 19. The U.S. military attacked by air and sea, destroying missiles, drones, and missile defense systems.
The objective included opening the shipping lanes in the Red Sea, which the Houthis have obstructed for months. Since November 2023, the Houthis have launched more than 100 attacks on commercial and military ships in the Red Sea. But the attack also sends a clear signal to Iran (and, quite likely, adversaries around the world), that Trump is willing to take a more aggressive approach than his predecessor.
Trump designated the Houthis a foreign terrorist organization at the end of his first term, a decision former President Joe Biden reversed. Trump touched on this on Saturday, saying that Biden’s attempt to clear the Red Sea “was pathetically weak, so the unrestrained Houthis just kept going.” The president also issued a warning to Iran, saying: “Support for the Houthi terrorists must end IMMEDIATELY!”
Ukraine: Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are expected to speak this week for the second time since Trump took office in January. Ukraine agreed to a temporary ceasefire last week, which will take effect if Putin agrees.
While the ceasefire has not yet been finalized, early talks have reportedly been promising: Steve Witkoff, the U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East, met with Putin late last week and told CNN’s Jake Tapper that the meeting was “positive” and “solutions-based.”
<h2> Space X To The Rescue</h2>
<div id="attachment_892621" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-892621" class="wp-image-892621 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Space-X-Falcon-Launch-3142025-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Space-X-Falcon-Launch-3142025-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Space-X-Falcon-Launch-3142025-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Space-X-Falcon-Launch-3142025-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Space-X-Falcon-Launch-3142025-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Space-X-Falcon-Launch-3142025-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Space-X-Falcon-Launch-3142025-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Space-X-Falcon-Launch-3142025-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />(Photo by Manuel Mazzanti/NurPhoto via Getty Images)</div>
Topline: A SpaceX Crew-10 Dragon capsule docked at the International Space Station (ISS) early Sunday morning to relieve two American astronauts who have been stuck in orbit for nine months. NASA&#8217;s SpaceX Crew-10 mission launched from Florida on Friday.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket propelled the Dragon capsule into orbit carrying a mixed crew from the United States, Japan, and Russia.
Who&#8217;s getting rescued? NASA astronauts Butch Willmore and Suni Williams docked at the ISS on June 6 and were scheduled to spend eight days aboard the space station. They were testing a new space capsule from Boeing, the Starliner. However, the Starliner experienced technical problems, and NASA delayed their return, citing unacceptable risks to the astronauts. Boeing maintained that the craft was safe and could have returned Willmore and Williams to Earth, but NASA had the final call.
During their extended stay on the ISS, Williams broke the record for the most time spent spacewalking by a woman: 62 hours and 6 minutes.
The Politics: According to President Trump, former President Biden effectively abandoned Willmore and Williams. Trump asked Musk, who is SpaceX&#8217;s CEO, to rescue them.
“[They] shouldn&#8217;t have been up there so long,” Trump said earlier this month. “The most incompetent president in our history has allowed that to happen to you, but this president won&#8217;t let it happen. We&#8217;re going to get them out.”
NASA has disputed Trump&#8217;s characterization, saying that the astronauts weren’t stranded and that nine months on the space station isn’t unprecedented by any stretch, considering astronauts have stayed on the ISS for more than a year. But judging by their reaction to the replacement crew&#8217;s arrival, they are definitely ready to leave. They could be back home as early as Tuesday evening.

Rep. Cori Bush Sleeps Outside Capitol Building In Push To Extend Federal Eviction Moratorium

Morning Brief: Dems Divided, Trump Hits Terrorists, And A Space Rescue Unfolds

Elon Musk

Houthis

International Space Station (ISS)

Media

Morning Wire

NASA

Red Sea

SpaceX

Ukraine-Russia War

Yemen

For those who don&#8217;t spend their Sunday mornings glued to the television — and their Sunday afternoons attempting to dig through a week&#8217;s worth of network and cable news media spin — The Daily Wire has compiled a short summary of what you may have missed.
Sunday morning saw a lot of Democrats attempting to do damage control in the wake of Friday&#8217;s continuing resolution passing — which will keep the federal government funded through September — despite the vast majority of the party voting in favor of shutting down the government.
The most recent NBC News poll is not likely to assuage any fears regarding the chaos within the Democratic Party, especially since the survey was taken days before Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) agreed to support the CR, thus avoiding a government shutdown that would have been attributed to his party. In that poll, Democrats hit a new all-time low approval rating with just 27% having a &#8220;positive view&#8221; of the party and just 7% saying they had a &#8220;very positive view&#8221; of Democrats. To make matters worse, the poll also indicated that Democratic voters would prefer to see the party fighting against Trump more — fueling Democrats who opposed Schumer&#8217;s decision to back the CR.
On ABC News&#8217; &#8220;This Week,&#8221; former Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Donna Brazile kicked off the conversation with a deflection and argued that it was the Republicans who had no cohesive strategy — despite the passage of the CR being touted as a massive victory for House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA).
When asked to respond to Schumer&#8217;s support for the CR — and the ensuing &#8220;massive blowback,&#8221; Brazile opted to first attack Republicans instead.
&#8220;Congressional Republicans have a strategy. They want to pass the Trump agenda no matter how reckless it is. They want to pass the — I mean, make sure all of his cabinet people are secured and later on, his tax cuts. They have a strategy, we know it. It&#8217;s radical. It&#8217;s reckless. It&#8217;s producing all kind of uncertainty with the markets, Main Street, Wall Street upset,&#8221; Brazile complained before pivoting to argue that the Democrats should have been more prepared for the fight over the CR: &#8220;But where&#8217;s the Democratic strategy?&#8221;
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“Congressional Republicans have a strategy … It&#39;s radical. It&#39;s reckless. It&#39;s producing all kind of uncertainty with the markets, Main Street, Wall Street upset,” former DNC chair <a href="https://twitter.com/donnabrazile?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DonnaBrazile</a> says. 
“But where&#39;s the Democratic strategy?” <a href="https://t.co/1SVBmGiJia">pic.twitter.com/1SVBmGiJia</a>
&mdash; This Week (@ThisWeekABC) <a href="https://twitter.com/ThisWeekABC/status/1901317843607552273?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 16, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Former Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus agreed with Brazile&#8217;s assessment of the Democrats, adding, &#8220;The Democrats have had two horrific weeks.&#8221;
&#8220;They&#8217;ve got no leader. They&#8217;ve got no movement. The only thing they&#8217;ve got is &#8216;Trump derangement syndrome.&#8217; It&#8217;s the only thing that brings them together,&#8221; he said.
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“The Democrats have had two horrific weeks,” former RNC chair <a href="https://twitter.com/Reince?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Reince</a> says. 
“They&#39;ve got no leader. They&#39;ve got no movement. The only thing they&#39;ve got is &#39;Trump derangement syndrome.&#39; It&#39;s the only thing that brings them together.” <a href="https://t.co/U24qIvgdNO">https://t.co/U24qIvgdNO</a> <a href="https://t.co/TnAy0T0wxr">pic.twitter.com/TnAy0T0wxr</a>
&mdash; This Week (@ThisWeekABC) <a href="https://twitter.com/ThisWeekABC/status/1901320181420593337?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 16, 2025</a></blockquote>
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The Washington Post&#8217;s Marianna Sotomayor noted that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) had not supported the CR, leading to what she referred to as a &#8220;trust deficit&#8221; between Jeffries and Schumer over apparently differing strategies.
Sotomayor explained that while Jeffries was not one to publicly criticize Schumer, the fact that he was not taking questions on the topic was a criticism of sorts. &#8220;There is tension,&#8221; she said. &#8220;Hill Democrats are divided. They — House Democrats really felt like they had to respond to the base, not just the liberal activist base, but a very angry Democratic voting base.&#8221;
&#8220;The fact that Schumer took so long to make a decision — that really alienated and upset a lot of Democratic senators — and now there is this division,&#8221; she added. &#8220;There is a trust deficit now between the leaders.&#8221;
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WaPo’s <a href="https://twitter.com/MariannaReports?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MariannaReports</a> says Democrats on Capitol Hill are “divided” over how Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer handled the government funding bill. 
“There is a trust deficit now between the leaders.” <a href="https://t.co/q3KfgfZZTA">https://t.co/q3KfgfZZTA</a> <a href="https://t.co/otmBrS8dD3">pic.twitter.com/otmBrS8dD3</a>
&mdash; This Week (@ThisWeekABC) <a href="https://twitter.com/ThisWeekABC/status/1901329686728425676?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 16, 2025</a></blockquote>
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On CBS News, &#8220;Face the Nation&#8221; host Margaret Brennan spoke with Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) about the disarray within her party — and Dingell was slightly less reserved than minority leader Jeffries in her criticisms of Schumer.
Dingell accused Schumer of &#8220;sending out mixed signals&#8221; with regard to whether or not he would support the CR, saying that the people she had talked to in recent days had preferred risking a shutdown to allowing the Republican CR to pass. &#8220;We have got to be united as Democrats,&#8221; she said, adding that her party needed to be prepared to push back during the upcoming budget reconciliation process.
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Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) says Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, sent &quot;mixed signals&quot; about the measure to avert a government shutdown, which Schumer and several other Democratic senators ultimately supported.
She says &quot;people are angry,&quot; but &quot;we&#39;ve got to move… <a href="https://t.co/anoD3qRiJc">pic.twitter.com/anoD3qRiJc</a>
&mdash; Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) <a href="https://twitter.com/FaceTheNation/status/1901305138205089916?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 16, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Dingell went on to say that the constituents she&#8217;d spoken to wanted Democrats to fight back harder against the Trump administration and, in particular, cuts that were being made at his direction and through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
&#8220;People are scared &#8230; they want to see Democrats fighting back,&#8221; Dingell said. &#8220;My town halls look like a Republican town hall. I&#8217;m not taking it personally. They want to see us do something.&#8221;
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&quot;People are scared&quot; about the Trump administration’s cuts to the federal government and services, and &quot;they want to see Democrats fighting back,&quot; says Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI).
&quot;My town halls look like a Republican town hall. I&#39;m not taking it personally,&quot; she adds. 
&quot;They… <a href="https://t.co/OEDwRSxbT9">pic.twitter.com/OEDwRSxbT9</a>
&mdash; Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) <a href="https://twitter.com/FaceTheNation/status/1901305317264126291?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 16, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) helped to perpetuate the division during her appearance on CNN&#8217;s &#8220;State of the Union,&#8221; where she lashed out at Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) for his criticisms of an influencer&#8217;s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/female-dems-choose-your-fighter-promo-delivers-knockout-blow-to-illusion-they-were-ever-serious" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hype video</a> in which she&#8217;d appeared.
&#8220;He&#8217;s not the one to talk about anything,&#8221; she told anchor Jake Tapper before pivoting to mock Fetterman&#8217;s appearance. &#8220;I mean this is a guy that doesn&#8217;t seemingly want to own a suit, I&#8217;m not really sure. But I don&#8217;t show up in hoodies when I&#8217;m going on the floor, and so the idea that you would say that we could not have a moment in which — an influencer asked us to do this. Now, I&#8217;ll be perfectly honest with you, and tell you that when she asked me to jump, I said, &#8216;Did you ask my older colleagues to do this? Because I feel like you&#8217;re picking on me because my knees are a little younger.'&#8221;
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Speaking to <a href="https://twitter.com/jaketapper?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@jaketapper</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/RepJasmine?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@RepJasmine</a> hits back at Sen. Fetterman after he mocked Democrats&#39; strategy to counter Trump: &quot;He&#39;s not the one to talk about anything.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/R1r421Msro">pic.twitter.com/R1r421Msro</a>
&mdash; State of the Union (@CNNSOTU) <a href="https://twitter.com/CNNSOTU/status/1901291152978178325?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 16, 2025</a></blockquote>
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A panel that rounded out the CNN Sunday morning broadcast also delved into what is apparently quickly becoming a civil war among Democrats.
Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) attempted to spin off into a discussion complaining about President Trump and billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, but Tapper stopped her and put her back on course.
Stevens began by praising Schumer&#8217;s past actions and Jeffries&#8217; leadership, but then Tapper pressed her, asking whether Schumer was the right leader for the Democrats in the Senate at this particular moment. &#8220;I don&#8217;t think we should be talking about that and giving Trump any more wins,&#8221; was her reply.
Ashley Etienne, who previously worked as the communications director for former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) advised the party to &#8220;get out of the way&#8221; and let Trump &#8220;prove&#8221; that he is capable of fixing the economy. She then indicated that she was certain he&#8217;d fail, citing recent ups and downs in the stock market as proof that Trump&#8217;s policies would ultimately crash the economy.
Republican commentator Scott Jennings kicked off his comments with a jab at Democrats, saying that Schumer had helped to defeat the &#8220;racist Jim Crow filibuster&#8221; — which Democrats campaigned to eliminate until they wanted to use it against Trump. &#8220;I think he deserves a lot of credit this morning.&#8221;
&#8220;As Republicans this week, we have overdosed on popcorn watching this Democrat civil war,&#8221; Republican strategist Brad Todd added.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/BradOnMessage?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BradOnMessage</a>: &quot;As Republicans this week, we have overdosed on popcorn watching this Democrat civil war.&quot;<a href="https://twitter.com/RepHaleyStevens?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@RepHaleyStevens</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/ScottJenningsKY?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ScottJenningsKY</a>, and <a href="https://twitter.com/AshleyEtienne09?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AshleyEtienne09</a> join <a href="https://twitter.com/jaketapper?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@jaketapper</a> on the fallout from the shutdown fight, Democratic infighting, and the politics of Trump&#39;s… <a href="https://t.co/gbzIoR6Wmw">pic.twitter.com/gbzIoR6Wmw</a>
&mdash; State of the Union (@CNNSOTU) <a href="https://twitter.com/CNNSOTU/status/1901292983074644038?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 16, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Senate Takes Up Budget Bill Passed By House As Funding Deadline Looms

Spin Cycle: Democrats Scramble For A Foothold As Party Popularity Tanks

ABC News

CBS News

MSNBC

NBC News

A tremendous number of Democrats voted against a continuing resolution to avert a partial government shutdown this past week, as underscored by a statistic delivered by Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) over the weekend.
Joining &#8220;Life, Liberty, &amp; Levin&#8221; on Fox News, Johnson spoke about how Republicans who control both chambers of Congress &#8220;put the Democrats on record for just raw partisan politics&#8221; with votes on the stopgap bill.
&#8220;Think of it: 99% of the Democrats in Congress, both the House and the Senate, voted to shut the government down to try to make some sort of aimless political point,&#8221; Johnson told host Mark Levin. &#8220;It&#8217;s shameless. They are using the American people as pawns. But Republicans are getting the job done and we&#8217;re sticking up for the country.&#8221;
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99% of Democrats in Congress voted to shut down the government just to make an aimless political point. It is shameless. They are using the American people as pawns.
Meanwhile, Republicans stuck together and got the job done to keep our government funded. <a href="https://t.co/nQx5POfjJg">pic.twitter.com/nQx5POfjJg</a>
&mdash; Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) <a href="https://twitter.com/SpeakerJohnson/status/1901087008052654332?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 16, 2025</a></blockquote>
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A single House Democrat — Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME) — voted in favor of passing the continuing resolution, which provides funds to various federal agencies and programs through September 30. In the Senate, a handful of Democrats chose <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/senate-officially-sends-funding-bill-to-trumps-desk-after-dems-cave" target="_blank" rel="noopener">not to support</a> blocking the funding patch, but only Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Angus King (I-ME) voted to pass it.
Johnson gave thanks to his Republican colleagues for largely sticking together and credited President Donald Trump for playing a &#8220;huge part&#8221; in mustering enough support to pass the continuing resolution before the midnight deadline at the end of Friday.
Only Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) broke from the GOP line, warning the stopgap bill would continue to fund programs that the Trump administration seeks to cut via the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) effort led by Elon Musk. However, Johnson contended the measure did show fiscal restraint.
&#8220;We all dug in and got the job done for the second — third time in a row. They keep underestimating us on these big votes, but the Republicans are sticking together and getting it done,&#8221; Johnson said. &#8220;And this time, we passed a resolution to fund the government — to do the responsible thing. To do it in a way that actually reduces spending year over year, which we think is the first time that might have happened in the modern era — if ever.&#8221;

House Votes On Budget Bill To Fund Government

Speaker Johnson Shares Eye-Opening Statistic On Dem Shutdown Vote

Mike Johnson

Republicans

U.S.

Americans want Democrats to &#8220;fight&#8221; President Donald Trump, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) contended on Sunday, despite polling that painted a dismal picture for his party.
On NBC&#8217;s &#8220;Meet the Press,&#8221; Murphy <a href="https://x.com/westernlensman/status/1901281862594580654?s=46&amp;t=z5YS3Gq8Y9sGYCPA7C8RlQ" target="_blank" rel="noopener">alluded</a> to a contentious few days for Senate Democrats in the last week. During that time, enough members of the party chose <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/senate-officially-sends-funding-bill-to-trumps-desk-after-dems-cave" target="_blank" rel="noopener">not to support</a> blocking a GOP-backed stopgap bill, allowing it to pass and averting a partial government shutdown.
&#8220;I think Americans want the Democratic Party to stand up and fight and to take risks. Listen, I understand that had we gone into a shutdown, even for a handful of days, it would have been difficult,&#8221; Murphy said.
&#8220;But it would have sent a message that the Democratic Party is not going to be bullied by Donald Trump,&#8221; he added. &#8220;We are not going to let them write spending bills unilaterally that cut programs for people we care about, that give the president new and extraordinary power.&#8221;
Murphy was responding to moderator Kristen Welker, who pressed the senator for a response to a new NBC survey. Conducted before the Senate showdown over the continuing resolution, the national poll <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/yuge-poll-numbers-for-trump-president-cracks-right-direction-threshold-not-seen-since-2004" target="_blank" rel="noopener">found</a> just 27% of respondents had a positive view of the Democrats.
The same survey revealed that Trump and his second-term administration reached a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/yuge-poll-numbers-for-trump-president-cracks-right-direction-threshold-not-seen-since-2004" target="_blank" rel="noopener">significant milestone</a>, with 44% of Americans saying they believe the United States is &#8220;headed in the right direction&#8221; — the highest level since early 2004 when George W. Bush was president.
Despite these findings, Murphy argued that bipartisanship is not a viable option for his party. Echoing a common refrain among Democrats, he warned that representative democracy in the United States is at risk with Trump in office.
&#8220;I think Democrats in this country, but I think the broad middle of the public as well, want to see our party fighting in exceptional ways,&#8221; Murphy said. &#8220;That is the conversation that has to happen inside of the Democratic Party, inside our caucus. And if we don&#8217;t get that right, if we continue to work with Republicans, if we continue to hand Donald Trump more power, we are going to lose our democracy.&#8221;

U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT)

Confronted With Party’s Cratering Popularity, Dem Insists Americans Crave Anti-Trump ‘Fight’

Chris Murphy

President Trump has chalked up another win.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer made noises earlier this week about the possibility of holding up a continuing resolution that would fund the government all the way until September.
It was unclear why he was doing that. Strategically, he had no ground on which to stand because, after all, if the Democratic minority in the United States Senate decided to filibuster the continuing resolution, there would be a government shutdown. Then, the Republicans would correctly name the Democrats as having actually created the government shutdown, at which point Schumer and the Democrats would be blamed for everything.
It was a gigantic unforced error by Schumer. Then, on Thursday, he reversed. Democrats, of course, are very upset at Schumer because they believe that it is their duty to obstruct literally everything the Republicans do.
To be fair to Schumer, this was a no-win situation.
On the one hand, if the continuing resolution goes forward, then President Trump can continue to unleash the executive branch, using DOGE to cut, slash, and burn. He has the capacity to do that because the continuing resolution says the government is going to continue to run at the same funding levels as it has previously. It did not include specific designations where funding ought to go within each department, allowing for enormous discretion inside the executive branch for President Trump to continue to allow DOGE to do its work, which Democrats hate.
On the other hand, if they&#8217;d gone into a government shutdown, then President Trump would have had the capacity to determine who is and is not an essential worker because he&#8217;s the president. And that would mean more firings.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2158-democrats-cave-trump-chalks-up-another-win-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h3>
So Schumer’s radical Left-wing base was very upset with him for not standing up to President Trump by filibustering the continuing resolution.
The victory was a really amazing play by Speaker Mike Johnson, who was somehow able to cobble together the entire Republican majority. There&#8217;s been a lot of talk about Speaker Johnson and the unworkable Republican majority because it&#8217;s so small. In some ways, he&#8217;s actually benefited by that, because any single vote could be the vote that sinks a Trump agenda item. And no one wants to be the House vote saying no and thereby sinking a Trump agenda item — except for Thomas Massie.
The Democrats have to show performatively that they oppose Trump even if they can&#8217;t actually obstruct his agenda in any sort of effective ways. For instance, every single Democrat has begun cursing at a higher level. That&#8217;s performative.
In an article published earlier today, Punchbowl News <a href="https://punchbowl.news/article/senate/schumer-backs-funding-measure/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a>:
<blockquote>What a mess this has become.
A government-funding fight that began with Democrats demanding restrictions on Trump, Elon Musk and DOGE has ended with Democrats folding, and now sniping bitterly at each other.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and his leadership team distanced themselves from Schumer’s decision — but didn’t name him — in a statement Thursday night. Other House Democrats took direct aim at Schumer, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). Even Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.), the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee and Schumer ally, thinks it’s a big mistake.
Let’s be blunt here: Democrats picked a fight they couldn’t win and caved without getting anything in return. … Schumer had been making those same arguments against a shutdown for days in private. Yet he let this drag out, giving Democrats a false sense of hope that the caucus was actually going to fight.</blockquote>
And Trump wins again.

US-POLITICS-TRUMP

Trump Wins Again

Budget

Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)

DOGE

Federal Government

President Trump

A high-profile member of the &#8220;Squad&#8221; is taking on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) after he <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/schumer-caves-in-shutdown-showdown?topStoryPosition=undefined" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> on Thursday that he would not vote to stop a Republican-backed stopgap bill to avert a partial government shutdown.
CNN <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/13/politics/ocasio-cortez-schumer-democratic-shutdown-plan/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is mobilizing Democrats against Schumer&#8217;s plan and noted that some of her colleagues are privately urging the leftist firebrand to consider a primary challenge against him.
Ocasio-Cortez did not directly answer when CNN&#8217;s Jake Tapper <a href="https://x.com/Acyn/status/1900342531105435825" target="_blank" rel="noopener">asked</a> if she thinks Schumer is a &#8220;weak&#8221; leader, but she did contend that not voting against invoking cloture on the Republican continuing resolution would be a &#8220;mistake&#8221; for Democrats.
&#8220;But we have — we have time between now and tomorrow, and I hope that individuals that are considering that — reconsider it, I genuinely do. I don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s what New Yorkers want. I don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s what the country wants,&#8221; Ocasio-Cortez said.
A partial government shutdown, in which non-essential federal employees will be furloughed, is set to begin at the end of Friday if a funding bill is not passed in time. The GOP-led House narrowly <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/house-passes-funding-patch-win-trump-speaker-johnson" target="_blank" rel="noopener">passed</a> a six-month counting resolution earlier this week.
However, the Senate needs a three-fifths majority — or 60 votes — to invoke cloture and overcome a filibuster on the GOP&#8217;s six-month continuing resolution. Because Republicans have a 53-47 majority, a bipartisan front is needed to proceed.
Schumer said that he believes the GOP funding patch is &#8220;very bad,&#8221; but he insisted &#8220;allowing&#8221; President Donald Trump &#8220;to take even much more power via a government shutdown is a far worse option&#8221; and therefore would not support that outcome.
Prior to Schumer, Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) was the sole Senate Democrat to openly <a href="https://x.com/SenFettermanPA/status/1899584350305276091" target="_blank" rel="noopener">state</a> that he would not support blocking the Republican stopgap bill. Many others have released statements declaring their opposition to the GOP proposal.
House Democrat leaders <a href="https://x.com/RepJeffries/status/1900375732804628931" target="_blank" rel="noopener">broke with</a> Schumer, releasing a statement that endorsed a four-week continuing resolution their party has offered as an alternative to the Republican measure and bluntly stating, &#8220;House Democrats will not be complicit.&#8221;
Schumer <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJDHET0MAz8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> during an interview on MSNBC that he &#8220;knew&#8221; he would be criticized, but the Senate minority leader insisted he &#8220;felt obligated for the country, for my Democratic caucus — to the people — to explain how bad a shutdown would be.&#8221;

US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senate Dem Leader Chuck Schumer.

AOC Rises Against Schumer Amid Shutdown Meltdown

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

If you thought Democrats couldn&#8217;t possibly get any dumber, think again.
Somehow they have managed to achieve this signal feat. When it comes to the economy, President Trump is currently having some trouble, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down significantly since he took office.
Plus, there&#8217;s a lot of concern about the possibility of a recession in the near future in the United States, despite some pretty strong economic fundamentals. Even in the polling data, President Trump is moving the wrong way in regard to the economy.
If the economy picks up or continues to truck along, it does not mean President Trump can’t heal all of that. It just means that, because of all the volatility that has been injected into the economy and all the talk about tariffs, the news about the economy is not favorable to the president right now.
Thus, there’s a clear and obvious opening for Democrats.
And yet… 
Democrats are not only not going to take advantage of the opening, but they are also, figuratively speaking, going to shoot themselves in the foot.
As a Republican, I approve.
Through the leadership of Speaker of the House Mike Johnson — no thanks to Thomas Massie — the GOP passed a continuing resolution that will fund the government until roughly September, which gives Republicans plenty of time to negotiate a budget deal amongst themselves — to come up with the one big, beautiful bill that they need to pass — and get that done without the government simply falling apart.
That&#8217;s why the government shutdown was averted by the Republicans in the House. Now, it gets passed onto the Senate, where the GOP has a majority. Rand Paul has said he&#8217;s going to vote against the continuing resolution (CR), but there&#8217;s still 52 votes in favor. Even if it got down to 50 votes, JD Vance would then break the tie in favor of the CR.
So, if you&#8217;re a Democrat at this point, you&#8217;re looking at the state of the economy, which is somewhat dicey and volatile, because you can&#8217;t predict the future there. That is their only tool to attack President Trump. What the Democrats don&#8217;t want to do is get into the business of owning the economy. Why would you want to own that if Republicans had fallen down on the job and been unable to pass a continuing resolution? They could have blamed Republicans for the shutdown.
This was the Democratic plan in the House. It&#8217;s the reason why Hakeem Jeffries instructed Democrats not to vote in favor of the so-called clean continuing resolution, which is just a maintenance of funding at current levels all the way through September. All Democrats, except for one, did not participate in the CR.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2157-democrats-to-shut-down-the-government-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h3>
But now the Democrats seem to want to actively kill the continuing resolution and push America into a government shutdown that they clearly will own.
That move makes no sense, politically speaking. Yesterday, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/government-shutdown-democrats-funding-deadline-bcb67826" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Wall Street Journal</a> reported, “Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer threw a wrench into a Republican plan to avert a government shutdown this weekend, saying there wasn’t enough Democratic support to advance the measure funding federal agencies through Sept. 30.”
You may be wondering, don&#8217;t Republicans actually have a majority in the Senate?
Yes, they do. But in order to overcome a filibuster, in order to invoke cloture, they need 60 votes.
Democrats could simply eschew filibustering. They could just say, “Fine, listen, you want to vote for the CR? Then vote for the CR.” Instead, Democrats are now actively considering filibustering a clean continuing resolution, which makes no political sense. Most Americans are just saying, “Leave us alone,” which is effectively what the CR does.
If Democrats want to throw a wrench into that for no apparent reason, then they will own any government shutdown. And if the economy turns south, then they own it. They own a big chunk of that because a government shutdown is going to throw all sorts of scares into the market.
The Journal continued:
<blockquote>Republicans “do not have the votes in the Senate,” to move the resolution forward, Schumer said on the Senate floor, indicating that his party was prepared to block it. He blamed Republicans, saying they “chose a partisan path” in their bill without any input from congressional Democrats.</blockquote>
It sure seems partisan to use your 47 votes in the United States Senate to hold up 53 votes in the Senate, simply because your base is mad at you for not standing up enough to President Trump&#8217;s agenda.
The Journal continued, writing, “As an alternative, Schumer floated a shorter-term plan that would fund the government for a month. ‘I hope my Republican colleagues will join us to avoid a shutdown on Friday,’ he said.”
Schumer is hoping the Republican coalition will fall apart in the meantime and that the economy will fall apart during that month. He&#8217;s hoping the stock market crashes in that interim month, and then he won&#8217;t be blamed no matter what happens.
But, again, what he&#8217;s doing right now makes no political sense. He is injecting Democrats into the middle of the most dicey proposition for the Trump administration.
I don&#8217;t understand any of the logic here. The first rule of politics is do not — do not — get in the way of your opponent making a mistake. Do not interrupt your enemy when your enemy is making a mistake. If the Democrats’ idea is that the Republicans own every aspect of the economy, then they have to let the Republicans own the economy. If they inject themselves into that process in order to shut down the government, they then own what comes next.
Republicans know this, which is why House Speaker Mike Johnson said the ball is in Schumer&#8217;s court.
<h3><a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP</a></h3>
The Democrats hope that funding the CR for a short term will force the Republicans to basically negotiate with Democrats. But that is not what&#8217;s going to happen. The GOP is fully willing to allow Democrats to own a government shutdown; Schumer is going to have to own it.
If you invoke a filibuster in order to own a government shutdown, you are a moron.
And what Schumer is doing here is really stupid.
It&#8217;s virtually the best-case scenario for President Trump. Let&#8217;s say Schumer does the filibuster, and the government shutdown occurs because he did the filibuster. President Trump then has the unique capacity to determine who exactly is an essential worker under federal law. At that point, he can let Elon Musk in there with the chainsaw.
They&#8217;re playing right into Trump&#8217;s hands.

Democrats Threaten To Shut Down The Government. How Dumb Are They?

Ben Shapiro

Hakeem Jeffries

Opinion

Senate Democrats

House Democrats are facing ridicule for parroting identical critiques of the Republican-backed stopgap bill to avert a partial government shutdown at the end of the week.
Within a span of a few hours Wednesday, several lawmakers <a href="https://x.com/Chesschick01/status/1900072839400575404">posted</a> on X largely the same message about how they wanted to vote on a four-week continuing resolution in place of the six-month bill already <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/house-passes-funding-patch-win-trump-speaker-johnson" target="_blank" rel="noopener">passed</a> by the GOP-led House that is now under <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/schumer-shutdown-looms-as-dems-plan-to-block-gop-spending-patch" target="_blank" rel="noopener">consideration</a> in the Senate.
<blockquote>House Democrats stand united for a four-week funding extension that stops harmful cuts, keeps the government open, and allows Congress to reach a bipartisan funding agreement.
I am ready to vote today, tomorrow or Friday to pass a bipartisan extension.</blockquote>
Longtime Capitol Hill reporter Jamie Dupree <a href="https://x.com/jamiedupree/status/1899993968533807520" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shared</a> a screen grab of four posts that mirrored each other from Reps. Marc Veasey (D-TX), Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Emilia Strong Sykes (D-OH), and Sarah McBride (D-DE).
&#8220;Democrats using Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V,&#8221; Dupree said.
In response, Punchbowl News co-founder Jake Sherman <a href="https://x.com/JakeSherman/status/1900171323269140568" target="_blank" rel="noopener">noted</a>, &#8220;it&#8217;s very interesting. in an era where people talk all the time about authenticity on social media, Dems are going in this direction.&#8221;
Republican lawmakers chided their Democrat colleagues.
&#8220;This is what happens [when] you have no leader, no plan, or no vision. It is about as cringe as their choose your fighter videos,&#8221; <a href="https://x.com/RepLisaMcClain/status/1899998511627735504" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> House Republican Conference Chairwoman Lisa McClain (R-MI), referring to a recent promo featuring Democrats that was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/female-dems-choose-your-fighter-promo-delivers-knockout-blow-to-illusion-they-were-ever-serious" target="_blank" rel="noopener">widely mocked</a>.
&#8220;Embarrassing,&#8221; <a href="https://x.com/RepAshleyHinson/status/1900177333949993368" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-IA). &#8220;Democrats have zero authentic message other than shutting down the government because they just despise [President Donald] Trump. Free advice &#8211; don’t shut down the government &amp; start working with Republicans to deliver on the commonsense agenda Americans voted for.&#8221;
Rep. Kat Cammack (R-FL) <a href="https://x.com/Kat_Cammack/status/1900196372827058413" target="_blank" rel="noopener">quipped</a>, &#8220;The left has always hated independent thinkers, so this is no surprise coming from the copy/paste caucus,&#8221; and ended her post with a &#8220;woman shrugging&#8221; emoji.
Elon Musk, who is overseeing the Trump administration&#8217;s Department of Government Efficiency, effort, also sounded off.
&#8220;They must be using the same social media intern,&#8221; Musk <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1900050108584181980" target="_blank" rel="noopener">quipped</a>.
As <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/like-someones-telling-democrats-what-to-say-dems-mass-post-scripted-videos-ahead-of-trump-speech" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> by The Daily Wire, Democrats also pushed out almost identical video messages ahead of Trump’s first joint address to Congress of his second term last week.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren

‘Copy/Paste Caucus’: Dems Roasted Over Identical Posts On Funding Bill

The following is an excerpt taken from the new book “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Fools-Gold-Radicals-Traitors-California/dp/1546008039">Fool’s Gold: The Radicals, Con Artists, And Traitors Who Killed The California Dream And Now Threaten Us All</a>” By Susan Crabtree and Jedd McFatter. (Center Street/Hachette, March 2025)
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The Failed Progressive Vision
Under Newsom’s watch, violent crime in California has skyrocketed. Homicides jumped by 33.9 percent and aggravated assaults by 25.3 percent in 2022, with gun‑related homicides and aggravated assaults soaring by 37.7 percent and 61.1 percent, respectively. The actual rates are likely much higher. Crime data only captures incidents reported to police, and many crimes go unreported.
The rapidly rising crime rates didn’t just occur in a vacuum. They directly correspond with Newsom’s decade‑plus‑long progressive experiment with criminal justice reform, which has resulted in far lighter sentences and the premature release of violent criminals from jail. After Newsom released tens of thousands of prisoners during COVID, ostensibly to prevent the virus from spreading among California’s incarcerated criminals, the state prison population dropped from 160,000 in 2011 to around 91,556 by mid‑2024. As we discuss in Chapter 4, Newsom has been accused of releasing these prisoners under a false premise. COVID death rates in the state­ corrections system have been markedly lower than in the outside population. Even as crime surges, Newsom’s administration estimates the prison population will drop to roughly 86,000 by 2028.
Newsom is not only emptying prisons; he is also shutting them down. His administration has closed or is closing four state prisons, and has plans to “reimagine and transform” San Quentin, the state’s oldest and most notorious prison (and previous home to the largest “death row” in the United States), into a rehabilitation center. “We are literally tearing down walls to reimagine our prison system, incentivize true rehabilitation, and end cycles of violence and crime,” Newsom said in a 2024 press release. “Brick by brick, we’re building a new future that will make all of us safer.” But Newsom cited no evidence that the state is growing safer because there is none. As we will explain in Chapter 5 the state’s corrections agency won’t disclose rehabilitation results for the years Newsom has served in review copy office. Again, Newsom and the progressives’ failed COVID policies exacerbated the problem. During the pandemic, when millions were out of work and the state had the highest unemployment in the nation, flash mobs of masked robbers stormed through the doors of Nordstrom and other high‑end retailers in San Francisco and Greater Los Angeles, stealing thousands of dollars of purses, clothes, and jewelry. This type of organized retail theft has become such a massive problem that many retailers are closing their doors for good. By mid‑ 2024, Nordstrom, Macy’s, Whole Foods, Anthropologie, Old Navy, Office Depot, 7‑Eleven, and Denny’s all announced plans to close stores in downtown San Francisco or nearby Oakland. Starbucks and Target have also closed locations.
<div id="attachment_890669" style="width: 394px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Fools-Gold-Radicals-Traitors-California/dp/1546008039"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-890669" class="size-large wp-image-890669" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/91tKIgq7KIL._SL1500_-384x576.jpg" alt="Cover copyright: 2025 by Hachette Book Group, Inc." width="384" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/91tKIgq7KIL._SL1500_-384x576.jpg 384w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/91tKIgq7KIL._SL1500_-200x300.jpg 200w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/91tKIgq7KIL._SL1500_-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/91tKIgq7KIL._SL1500_.jpg 1000w" sizes="(max-width: 384px) 100vw, 384px" /></a>Cover copyright: 2025 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.</div>
Newsom attributes business closures in downtown San Francisco to “macroeconomic” shifts, not rampant theft, drug use, and violent crime. In August 2023, downtown San Francisco was such a hotbed of crime, homelessness, and drugs that the US Department of Health and Human Services advised employees at the Nancy Pelosi Federal Building in the Tenderloin District to work remotely “for the foreseeable future.” Showing up for work at the building had become just too dangerous.
In January 2024, California’s homegrown, beloved burger joint, In‑N‑­Out Burger, announced that it would close a store for the first time in its ­seventy‑five‑year history, citing crime. The franchise no longer considered the store near Oakland International Airport safe for operation. “We feel the frequency and severity of the crimes being encountered by our customers and associates leave us no alternative,” the company said. “Despite taking repeated steps to create safer conditions, our customers and associates are regularly victimized by car break‑ ins, property damage, theft, and armed robberies.”
Southern California isn’t faring much better. More and more businesses in Santa Monica and Los Angeles, even on once tony and vibrant Wilshire Avenue, have boarded up due to vandalism, crime, and homelessness scaring customers away.
“Mayor, we need your help. We need your help in this area,” Sean James, an independent contractor who runs a business in Santa Monica pleaded in an interview with a local Fox News affiliate.
The surge in violent murders, rapes, organized retail thefts, and other crimes that shock the conscience are directly the result of Newsom’s failed progressive vision and can be laid squarely at his feet. Back in 2014, when Newsom was lieutenant governor, he was the highest‑ranking official pushing the specific progressive ballot measure responsible for the chaos: Proposition 47. This was the George Soros–backed policy that decriminalized drug, property crimes, and even certain sex crimes. Prop. 47 turned theft of items valued under $950, and some drug offenses, from felonies to misdemeanors. Newsom vocally supported the progressive activists and organizations pushing Prop. 47, while his boss, then‑Governor Jerry Brown, remained quiet. The measure passed by a wide margin.
Despite the bedlam that has ensued, Newsom now seems in denial over the disastrous effects of Prop. 47. In early 2024, he revealed that he witnessed a shoplifter steal from Target without workers intervening to stop. When he confronted an employee about it, the woman blamed the California governor for passing laws that emboldened criminals — before realizing he was in fact the governor. “Why didn’t you stop him?” Newsom recalls asking the Target employee. “The governor lowered the threshold &#8230; there’s no accountability,” the employee said. Newsom’s description of the encounter was widely ridiculed for his failure to recognize the obvious truth in the Target employee’s accusation. 
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This excerpt is taken from the new book “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Fools-Gold-Radicals-Traitors-California/dp/1546008039" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fool’s Gold</a>” by Susan Crabtree and Jedd McFatter. Published by permission of Center Street/Hachette Book Group. Copyright © 2025 by Susan Crabtree and Jedd McFatter.
Susan Crabtree is senior White House and national political correspondent for RealClearPolitics.
Jedd McFatter is the director of research at Peter Schweizer’s Government Accountability Institute.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

California Governor Newsom Announces New Funding For Los Angeles Communities Affected By Wildfires