On Wednesday’s broadcast of NewsNation’s “On Balance,” Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) said that Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has “just been pushing for a very, very hard agreement” on the DHS shutdown but, “I disagree, at the moment, with the strategy of not taking the offer as it’s put on the table. I do think, as you said, there [are] things that the Trump administration has agreed to on body cameras, on ID, on no warrantless searches.”
After playing video of Senate Majority Leader Sen. John Thune (R-SD) talking about voting on what the Democrats say they wanted on opening all of DHS but a portion of ICE, host Leland Vittert asked, “And now we have things blown up. The person who’s not been wanting to negotiate about any of this is Chuck Schumer. Are Democrats well-led in the Senate and represented by Schumer?”
Schumer answered, “Yeah, a couple of things: One, he has been negotiating. He’s been negotiating. He’s just been pushing for a very, very hard agreement. … He’s also worried about actually reforming ICE so that the rights of Americans are protected, and they’re not killed, as they were in Minneapolis, so — and that’s not a trivial issue, again, it is important. I disagree, at the moment, with the strategy of not taking the offer as it’s put on the table. I do think, as you said, there [are] things that the Trump administration has agreed to on body cameras, on ID, on no warrantless searches. I don’t see why we can’t –.”
Vittert then cut in to ask if there are other Democrats who are “nervous” due to policy or politics, and Smith said that Democrats are “nervous” because of the negative impacts of the shutdown.
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