On Thursday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Lead,” Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) said that Democrats have remained united throughout the DHS shutdown and haven’t had a group say that they’ll just pass something to end the shutdown “because it’s clear that we need to put commonsense guardrails around federal agents.”
Host Phil Mattingly asked, “Both caucuses tend to have a group of members that, at some point, just kind of throw up their hands and say, we’ll take the — we’ll take it here, we’ll get something passed, right? Much to the chagrin of their bases, much to the chagrin, sometimes, of various political elements here. Democrats have remained completely united throughout the course of this, right? How long do you think that is sustainable in your caucus?”
Peters answered, “Well, we’ve been united, because it’s clear that we need to put commonsense guardrails around federal agents. And what we’re asking for is something that the American people all agree on. We’re saying that, basically, when federal agents are on our streets, in our cities, they should abide by the same rules that our local police abide by, that do it with professionalism and with honor and distinction, we should have federal agents also [abide] by those rules. And Republicans have said, no, we don’t want them under the same rules that our local police [follow]. So, we feel very strongly about that. We think that’s essential. We don’t think we need to have all of the other elements not being paid or not being funded.”
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