Senator Schmitt Joins Fox News to Discuss Democrats’ Threat of a Government Shutdown, Dangerous Rhetoric Fueling Chaos in Minneapolis
‘You Either Stand on the Side of Law and Order or Chaos’
WASHINGTON — Today, U.S. Senator Eric Schmitt (R-MO) appeared on Fox News’ America Reports to discuss the Democrats threatening to shut down the government over Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding and their dangerous, inflammatory rhetoric fueling chaos in Minneapolis.
Watch the full interview HERE
Senator Schmitt on Government Shutdown Threats:
“I’m hopeful we can avoid [a government shutdown]. The Democrats have hopefully learned their lesson. What could happen is that you could have a combination of the appropriations bills that were moved forward so far and a continuing resolution moving [DHS] forward. […] So that’s the hope. But I will say this, to the extent that Democrats want to negotiate on kneecapping ice from doing their jobs — that’s a hell no from a lot of Republicans. It’s not going to happen. The [chaos in Minneapolis] didn’t just start over the weekend. It didn’t just start last month. This issue started on January 20, 2021, when Joe Biden came into office and let 20 million illegal immigrants come to this country. President Trump ran on the idea of deporting these folks, and that is what’s going to move forward. They’re not going to stop that effort. One other important point, John, to note, in the Working [Families] Tax Cut [Act] that we passed last summer, it front-loaded DHS funding for multiple years because we anticipated that the Democrats would have a hissy fit. ICE is going to continue their operations. What the Democrats are really putting at risk is FEMA funding and TSA funding, and we’ll see if they’re actually going to do that, but I’m still hopeful we can [avoid a shutdown].”
—
Senator Schmitt Condemns Democrats’ Dangerous Rhetoric:
“It’s ridiculous. There’s some new cabinet person every week that they call for their resignation. It was Pete Hegseth a couple of weeks ago. Now it’s Kristi Noem, Stephen Miller is doing great work. They’re both doing important work right now for the country. That’s not going to happen. But the Democrats — I was listening to [Minneapolis] Mayor Frey on the lead in here — they refuse to de-escalate. They refuse to say what should be said, which is ‘protest all you want, but let ICE do their jobs’. They won’t do that. In nine counties, John, in this whole country, nine counties, there’s a 590 percent chance higher than every other county in the country for anti-ICE violence. Because these sanctuary cities, these sanctuary areas, are not cooperating with law enforcement. These operations are happening everywhere in the country, red states and blue states alike. You do not see the incidents in Minnesota because they’re able to do their jobs. The Democrats want this confrontation. They want chaos. The onus is on them. This isn’t on ICE. It’s not on DHS, and certainly not on President Trump.”
—
“100 percent they want these confrontations. They hope to catch some viral moments. And we’ve seen this before. We saw it in Ferguson. We saw it in 2020 in the wake of the George Floyd riots. This is a playbook now. The Democrats have been captured by the radical left. The truth is, we have laws in this country that have been passed by Republicans and Democrats alike, that make it illegal to come to this country. We have an Executive Agency whose job it is to actually deport these people. These ICE agents, in the freezing cold in Minnesota, are heroes doing the important work that the American people have voted for. President Trump ran on this. This was a central plank, not a footnote, a central plank in his 2024 campaign that said, ‘we’re going to deal with the mass migration we saw over the last four years’. That’s exactly what’s happening. he Democrats, when they try to talk about defending democracy, they’re actually opposed to that. They just don’t like the election results. They’re opposed to what the American people really want, which is to deport people who’ve come here illegally. And that’s going to march on. I’m not going to bend on that. It’s a very important point. We’re in a very important moment in our country, John, where we’re going to either stand on the side of law and order or chaos — and that’s what this is all about.”
###
