Democrats Finally Discover Leverage After 2 Americans Are Killed

If the second Trump administration has been a metaphorical firefight over whether the U.S. is a democracy or a theocracy run by Christian nationalists, Democrats didn’t bring a hose—they brought a couple of water balloons to fuck around with. They’ve caved, insulted voters and each other, and given everyone brain-splitting migraines. And when Renee Nicole Good was shot and killed by an ICE agent on January 7, they still didn’t say anything about blocking the budget bill that would give ICE another few billion.

But now that a second U.S. citizen, Alex Pretti, was murdered at the hands of federal agents over the weekend, Democrats have seemingly decided to stop playing patty-cake and exercise the only power they currently hold against the Republicans’ trifecta: They’re officially refusing to pass the bill that would have allocated an additional $64.4 billion to the Department of Homeland Security, including $10 billion for ICE—which could potentially trigger a government shutdown.

“Senate Democrats will not provide the votes to proceed to the appropriations bill if the D.H.S. funding bill is included,” Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) tweeted on Sunday, saying what’s happened in Minnesota is “appalling” and “unacceptable in any American city.” Thanks, Schumer. You should still resign.

Republicans have a 53–47 majority in the Senate, but due to the filibuster, a bill needs 60 votes to advance, meaning Republicans need five Democrats (and the two Independents) to join them. Zeteo News reported that they reached out to every Democratic senator on Monday, and 44 have vowed to oppose the bill. (The House passed the measure on Thursday.) If they don’t find a solution by Friday at midnight, we enter the second government shutdown of Trump’s second term. But while Senate Dems have committed to blocking it, and Schumer maintains it needs “a rewrite,” no one seems to have any specifics.

“I’m exploring all options,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), the chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee, who never means what she says or says what she means, told the New York Times. “We have five other bills that are really vital, and I’m relatively confident they would pass.” The measure also funds the Pentagon and State Department, as well as health, education, labor, and transportation programs.

“Democrats sought common sense reforms in the Department of Homeland Security spending bill, but because of Republicans’ refusal to stand up to President Trump, the DHS bill is woefully inadequate to rein in the abuses of ICE,” Schumer said on Monday. “I will vote no.”

During negotiations on the bill, Dems succeeded in securing $20 million to get more body cams for ICE agents and got in a provision that would reduce the funding for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s office, as well as require her to only use her office’s budget to pay for government air travel—so no more purchasing private jets. But Republicans would not budge on a proposal that would have barred funds from being used for ICE to detain or deport U.S. citizens. Shocker.

“Federal agents cannot murder people in broad daylight and face zero consequences,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, tweeted on Sunday. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) told CNN’s State of the Union that they can’t fund a department “that is murdering American citizens, that is traumatizing little boys and girls across the country in violation of the law.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) basically told Dems to shut up and that this is their fault because of sanctuary city policies.

So Dems could still stand to be bigger dicks. And it shouldn’t have taken dead American citizens for them to discover their leverage. But here we are.

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