On Thursday’s broadcast of MS NOW’s “The Weeknight,” Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) stated that, when it comes to Iran, “we better be prepared, or people are going to die.” And Democrats aren’t going to fully fund DHS in light of the war with Iran, “we’re going to stand strong because we have to have those policies.” He also stated that “ICE has all the money they need. They are fully funded” and that he wants to fund everyone else in DHS, just not give additional ICE money.
Co-host Symone Sanders Townsend asked, [relevant exchange begins around 23:25] “[O]ne of the things that has popped up since this war started [is] Republicans on Capitol Hill saying, this is why, because we are now in this war, Democrats need to fully fund the Department of Homeland Security, because it is making us, as Americans more vulnerable, because you all are not funding them. Is that an argument, you think, that is going to win out with members of your caucus? I personally don’t think it should…but, you know what, the spines have not been steely all year long. So, I am interested in that, because it’s something that I keep hearing publicly, but I’m also hearing it privately.”
Peters answered, “Yeah. No, we’re going to stand strong because we have to have those policies. And if you look at DHS, there are folks that are a part of DHS that we don’t have a beef with. We want our TSA agents to get paid. They’re out there in the airports doing the work. We have FEMA that [is] dealing with natural disasters. We have CISA for cybersecurity. We put a bill today, we basically said, pay everybody else, make sure that that’s all funded, but no money — additional money for ICE. As you know, they’re already fully funded with the bill that passed in the summer. So, ICE has all the money they need. They are fully funded. The other agencies aren’t, let’s fund them. Republicans said no. They basically want to hold TSA agents, CISA, our cybersecurity agency, and FEMA hostage because they don’t want to have their federal agents have the same rules that our local police have in all of our communities. It’s outrageous.”
He continued, “But I’d also want to add, even prior to this budget battle that we’re in right now, with the war in Iran, probably the biggest threat to the homeland right now that I worry about with Iran is cyber or cyberattacks. They’re very sophisticated. They are fully capable of doing a lot of harm. And, yet, prior to this, Kristi Noem, Donald Trump, they’ve laid off or pushed out one-third of the entire workforce of our cybersecurity folks, over 800 individuals. We’re now trying to get more information about other individuals who are no longer doing cybersecurity work, they’re doing immigration work, they’re doing deportation work, when they should be protecting our country from cyberattacks. That has to change.”
Peters added, “We’re fighting an enemy who’s going to fight pretty hard, and we better be prepared, or people are going to die.”
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