On Saturday’s broadcast of “Fox News Live,” Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) stated that the DHS shutdown “is nothing more than people that are afraid of the base to just explain to them that shutting down the entire DHS will have no impact or make those kinds of reforms for ICE.”
Fetterman said [relevant remarks begin around 2:40] that the earlier government shutdown “clearly…damaged our economy now, too,” and that’s a factor in the most recent GDP numbers, “and I was one of only [two other] Democrats that refused, constantly, to shut our government down, and here we are now. We, really — I was, now, the only Democrat to refuse that, and all the Democrats, we agree that we want to have some reforms on ICE, but this would have none of that involved in it. This shutdown is nothing more than people that are afraid of the base to just explain to them that shutting down the entire DHS will have no impact or make those kinds of reforms for ICE. And now we need to make sure that those resources are there, and I refuse to put the workers through now not getting paid for the second time in the last two or three months, America deserves more. And we should be able to count on keeping our government open, and now when you have a disaster like the sewage or a storm or anything, FEMA needs to always be ready, and now, why, I can’t — it’s just indefensible to shut down the DHS, especially because it’s not going to accomplish the kinds of goals and reform.”
He added that “there’s a big part of the Democratic Party that’s afraid of the base.”
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