MAGA Mike CLOSES DOWN House as Trump’s TERM COLLAPSES!!!

The chair lays before the House of Communication.

The Speaker's Room, Washington, D.C., March 27, 2026. I hereby designate the period from Friday, March 27, 2026, through Monday, April 13, 2026, as a district work period under Clause 13 of Rule 1, signed, Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House of Representatives.

And with that, MAGA Mike Johnson officially shut down the House of Representatives for basically a two week period. They are vacationing while the United States of America is at war. You will recall that last week, the United States Senate on a bipartisan basis passed a bill that would fund TSA, but would not provide additional money to ICE and Border Patrol as part of the Department of Homeland Security appropriations process because ICE has already been funded to the tune of hundreds of billions

of dollars, and the most pressing need right now is not to provide additional funding there, especially while Democrats are rightfully making requests that ICE remove their masks, that they use search warrants, that they identify themselves, that they don't appear at polling stations for the midterm elections. Republicans won't agree to that. So at least there was a bipartisan deal. Let's not let that hold up the funding to TSA agents and Democrats for weeks and weeks and weeks. What? Nine times before that introduced bill, standalone bills to fund TSA agents and Trump and MAGA shut that down. And then Donald Trump said,

all right, I'm going to do an executive order to fund the TSA agents. Yeah, that means you could have done that for weeks and weeks and weeks. So the Senate, though, because Donald Trump still doesn't even have the authority under the executive order to pay TSA agents, even though we all want TSA agents

to be paid. So I don't think anyone's really going to challenge the fact that Donald Trump has now agreed to pay them, but the Senate put forward a bill, put forward their own legislation that they did on a bipartisan basis. Then the House blocked it. The House said, no, we're not going to do anything unless we agree to bully transgender

people or whatever the hell Donald Trump wants. And so the Senate bill and the House bill have to be identical for it to become at least something that gets put on the president's have to be identical for it to become a least something that gets put on the president's desk to be signed into law. The House did their own thing while the Senate did their thing to fund the TSA. Then everybody left and you saw that right there. Everybody went on a recess and they're vacationing. And again, they're not

doing their article one function, which requires congressional authorization for a war. I mean, they're gone. The American people expect them to be working and they're gone right now because MAGA Mike said, see you later and you saw it right there. But then you have MAGA Republican Congress members

like Congresswoman McClain from Michigan, she goes on state regime media and she starts to like complain and said, I don't know why people don't see it the way I see it. I don't know why people see it. Listen to what she said yesterday on state regime media, which calls itself Fox.

I've got to tell you, Congresswoman, I mean, some people out there look at this situation and they don't understand. They know that the Republicans are in charge. You are running the House. You are running the Senate. You are running the White House. And yet we have these fights, and it's obvious that you can't get on the same page. And it seems like Democrats are still

winning. Yep. It's extremely frustrating, and that's why we passed a bill for the fourth time to make sure that we pay our Department of Homeland Security agents and the whole department. But this is a border fight. The radical Democrats want open borders. And as you know, it takes 60 votes in the Senate to get anything done. We need some common sense Democrats to come along with us.

And then right before Meghan Mike Johnson shut Congress down and sent it into a two-week recess, there was a hearing that was held where Democratic Congressmember McGovern reminded his MAGA Republican colleagues that Republicans control the Senate and the House and the presidency, and they need to stop blaming Democrats and pretending that Democrats run the government because Democrats are not in power right now. Watch this powerful moment before MAGA Mike suddenly sends Congress

into recess for another vacation. Play the clip. Yes. I want to know how many Republican senators voted against the bill that we're asking to be considered today in lieu of the continuing resolution. How many Republican senators objected to

basically the bill that Mr. DeLauro? None. None. Madam Chair, was there a roll call vote in the Senate or was this conducted in the middle of the night by voice vote? This was passed at a round by voice in the middle of the night. By voice. You control the Senate.

Anyone could have dissented. You control the extender in the Senate.

And the person who's holding up the extender is the Speaker of the House.

Five Democrats refused to actually do the job

for the American people.

And chose the guy in the back.

Yeah, and Americans are dying

because you guys refused to secure the country.

Don't stop the bullshit.

You do not have the floor. Mr. McGovern, I've been pretty tolerant.

So have we.

So have we.

Based on what's going on here today.

Mr. McGovern, you don't have the right to make that decision. You don't have the right to make a decision that you've been tolerant. We're following regular order here and that's what I'm going to do.

Follow regular order. I, out of courtesy, introduced you to ask a question, but I'm not gonna tolerate this kind of an outburst. I will not. I will not.

Speak to both sides.

Speaking of outbursts.

I hope you'll make that clear to the other side.

Please.

Mission. By the way, here's what Democratic Congress member Himes had to say.

Let's play it.

That standoff is not done yet. Right. The president is illegally paying, apparently, TSA agents. You had the Senate, as you pointed out with Mr. Homan, pass a bipartisan bill unanimously in the United States Senate to say, look, let's fund everybody else and let's deal with this thorny issue about ICE. And

then you had the Republican House say, hell no, we're not doing that. And by the way, mock their own Republican leaders in the Senate. So look, this thing is still very much live for one very simple reason. We can talk about House, Senate, changing law. One very simple reason, which is that the vast majority of Americans Look at the way ice behaved with the murder of two American citizens with the constant knocking down of doors of American citizens without warrants people dressed like they are, you know air lifting into Fallujah to

Do the legitimate work of going after? Illegal aliens in this country and they say that is not okay. And that's our position.

Our position is. You had Tom Homan, the so-called border czar. Here's what he has to say about ISIS presence in the airport. And it's like, why are you putting ICE agents in the airport? Just fund TSA and be normal.

Also, we're heading into the World Cup and the people who are visiting here, they don't wanna see ICE and Border Patrol, Gestapo terrorize people, kill people, kidnap them. I mean, it's horrible. Here's what he has to say.

Well, there's like 500 TSA officers who have quit. Do you expect to be able to rehire them? And we have some big events like the World Cup coming up in June. Are we going to have problems at airports for the foreseeable future? Look we're going

to continue a nice presence there and until the airports feel like they're in they're 100% you know in a posture where they can do normal operations. If less TS agents come back that means we'll keep more ICE agents there. The President has been clear. He wants to secure those airports, especially, as I said earlier, in an increased threat posture, we need to secure those airports. ICE is there to help our brothers and sisters in TSA.

We'll be there as long as they need us until they get back to normal operation and feel like those airports are secure.

And then here's what Andy Kim, Democratic Senator, had to say.

Play this clip. I have to say, Tom Homan did an excellent job of dodging your question earlier in the show when he said that, you know, he doesn't know why Trump didn't start paying the TSA agents sooner if they had the authority all along. Well, I know the answer to that.

The American people know it's because he didn't care about them, that he cared about ICE, he cares about his efforts to antagonize and assault the American people in our communities. We see no remorse for the killings of Alex Pretty and Rene Good. And so that is where things are at.

This shutdown should have ended. And that's just a very clear statement. It should have ended the other day. It should not have gone along all this way because what the Trump administration is clearly doing is going against the demands from the American people.

And that's what I saw at the No King's Rally yesterday. I spoke in front of thousands of people there, every single one of them united in saying what we see happening in our communities, the lawlessness of ICE, we don't want that here in our own homes.

You know, and now Republican senators are getting very nervous and Republican Congress members because people are like, dude, what are you doing? Like, just be normal and pass some actual legislation, please. So Senator Thune, the Senate majority leader, sent guidance, as Andrew Desiderio explains, to GOP senators yesterday, saying he's trying to work with Schumer to see if there's something the Dems would agree to regarding Department of Homeland Security funding, but noted that

Democrats have already blocked Department of Homeland Security continuing resolutions because it provides additional money to ICE and Border Patrol and they've already got billions of dollars. Democrats have made it clear, just fund TSA. Fund the TSA agents. Fund FEMA. Fund all these other things.

ICE and Border Patrol don't need more money. They've already gotten all their money. And so Schumer and Democrats, to their credit, are like, we ain't coming. We've made it clear that we ain't funding ICE anymore. A continuing resolution would fund ICE more to the tune of billions of dollars, and we're not doing that. And the public doesn't want

ICE and Border Patrol getting more money. People know what ICE and Border Patrol do. It's such a stain on our country and the harm it inflicts on human beings. In any event, I want to bring in Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, Senator from Nevada. I have a lot of questions that I want to ask her. I did this interview before the deal was ultimately made in the Senate, but it's still as relevant right now as it is then here. Let's bring in Senator Cortez Masto. Senator Cortez Masto, great to see you. I wanna talk about, I mean, you had Trump's cabinet meeting on Thursday

where just the way he and his cabinet are talking about this war, I don't think our country has really ever seen in our history people who talk about war and death and issues with such a kind of a recklessness and a carelessness and constantly contradicting themselves.

And when you had treasury secretary, Scott Besant even say something like, I think Americans can deal with short-term volatility. They can stomach these types of things. And then Donald Trump basically, I mean, cursing saying we bombed the shit out of them.

We bombed the shit out of them, which then becomes propaganda that's used by them against us. And I just want to get your perspective, just kind of seeing that this is not normal. And I fear that it's being reported other places through a lens of even referring to this as like, well, the neocons, this is something entirely, if I think to me, in another atmosphere, I want to get your

perspective on it, Senator.

Yeah, no, Ben, I think you're absolutely right. This isn't normal. The focus should start with we're sending our children over there. We're sending men and women into war. That should be the first thing we think about and why we are doing it and risking their lives. And then we should be talking about when we move into this world of war, you've got to go to Congress. There has to be well

thought out why we're doing this. What is our plan? What is our strategy? What is our exit strategy? What are we trying to achieve here? That is the reason why the administration is required by law to come to Congress for this very reason. And so what we are seeing is you rightfully talked about this. They're more focused on the violence of it, right? The strength and the power that they have versus what they're trying to achieve at the end of the day and the impact it would have to Americans,

not just our men and women in the service who we're sending over there, but people here at home, their loved ones, but the impact it's also having in general on high prices and the impact it has to everyday Americans, who by the way, are seeing their dollars being spent

on a foreign war that nobody asked this country to get into, instead of spending it here in the United States to lower costs for families. That's where the focus should be.

Right. And then there's the constant attack on our allies. Trump continues to attack NATO members. And then while Russia and Iran are out there, not even hiding it, publicly saying, we're working with each other to kill Americans. You know, those 13 military bases in the Middle East that have been evacuated, we're sharing the intelligence to target soldiers. And Trump's response is, I'm going to have to remove those

oil sanctions against Russia. And I'm going to have to remove those oil sanctions against Russia, and I'm going to remove the sanctions against Belarus, and I'm going to remove it against Iran. And then Iran and Russia, they mock Trump, and Iran does the memes and says, thanks for the President Donald. And I'm like, what is happening?

And then you have your Republican colleagues, you know, who are, you know, otherwise, you know, kind of serious people. I know they are deep down, I hope, and you know this, but they go along with it. And to me, it's like be clowning themselves from a position where I thought

they would stand up to this mess.

Yeah, and Ben, I couldn't disagree with you at all. And this is why when I first even saw the public reporting and heard that what we are seeing here is Russia's giving intelligence to Iran to target the United States and our men and women in their service.

This is outrageous, number one. And why aren't we holding Putin and Russia accountable? Why aren't we calling this out? And you're absolutely right. The response for this administration is, well, actually, let's take the sanctions off of them, give them more money for their fossil fuels, which is going to go

towards funding more of an attack against Ukraine, and also sharing information with Iran. It is outrageous. And that goes back to what I said from the very beginning. This administration, there's not a lot of deep thinking going on here. They're very knee jerk reaction. It is about more of the power and using that power which they think they can win with, right?

It's not about diplomacy, which is how this should start. If you talk to any general, if you talk to anybody in the military, it is about working with not just our allies, but addressing those foreign nations who are not our friends. It starts with diplomacy before we even get into this idea that we've got to go to war with them. This administration has taken it off the table.

Not only has they taken it off the table, they've gutted most of the State Department. They've gutted most of the positions where we would have that diplomacy and go in and have these conversations first. And then they're too afraid, this administration, to hold Putin accountable, to hold those leaders accountable for what we are seeing on the attacks in this country, but also to our allies. And it's just, it is an upside down, it is a dangerous to our national security.

And again, I go back to, that's why they need to come to Congress. That's why there should be this engagement with this administration and members of Congress on what is going on here. I am also frustrated that the Republicans who are in control of Congress are abdicating are the role here to the administration, because they're too afraid to say

anything. They're too afraid to stand up. There's not a lot of courage there. And when it does occur, sometimes it's behind closed doors. I'm gonna go back to this again and again because it is the taxpayers, it's the Americans who are suffering.

It is our service members who suffer. And by the way, if we really cared about addressing the needs in this country, what I hear back home are the challenges Americans are facing with high costs, right? Administration was going to come back to us and try to ask for $200 billion for their foreign war without explaining where this is coming from.

And so to me, this is, no, you don't get $200 billion when that money could be better spent here for Americans who are right now fighting with these high costs. We've got to be thoughtful about this process. And there's a role for Congress, but this president doesn't believe in it.

And Senator, while there's this escalating war in Iran, while we get these conflicting statements from, you know, Donald Trump, I remember right before when Donald Trump said that he was announcing this thing called the Board of Peace. I mean, we all remember that. And now we learned that there were billions of dollars being funneled that were supposed to be going to international disaster relief and, you know, helping allies and helping countries like actual diplomatic stuff. And that got moved to this murky board of peace where where's even the money going

and what the heck is happening there. And I know you have introduced legislation to try to claw back the money and say, can we be giving it to the people here in America who are actually suffering? It seems like such a no brainer,

but you know, you know, it will be opposed by your Republican

colleagues and by Trump, but talk to us about it. I will. So as you pointed out, the administration, this president has decided to create his own Board of Peace, allegedly to address humanitarian aid. Well, let me first of all say, one, if he really wants to address humanitarian aid around the world, he shouldn't have gutted all of those programs that we fought for for humanitarian aid. Second question, a board of peace really, when he's out in Venezuela, he's out in Iran right now, it's kind of a misnomer. And you've got to question why he wants $1.5 billion or more.

Already he's had the treasury transfer $1.5 billion to this Board of Peace, which he has exclusive control over. There's no oversight on how he can use these funds. And I question what he wants to use it for. And to me, it's better spent, what I said earlier. Americans are suffering with high prices and high costs. Let us put it towards a program where we know they can lower costs.

How about energy costs? Because of the war in Iran, we're seeing an energy costs increase. Let's take that money, 1.5 billion, and put it in a program, it's called LIHEAP, that we know is a traditional program

that helps Americans, helps families lower their energy costs by helping them weatherize their homes or improve their homes for weatherization to lower those energy costs. It's a proven program that's existed for over 40 years. Administration's been gutting it.

So if he's really focused on lowering costs for families, let's start with energy and let's put the money, taxpayer dollars, by the way, into where taxpayers can benefit from, like the LIHEAP program.

And let's talk about what a lot of Americans are, who are traveling are talking about. These airports are an absolute disaster right now. I know Democrats have repeatedly been out there saying, we want to fund TSA. Let us pay them. Just say yes.

I know your Republican colleagues, while I have lots of criticisms that could fill up a full day's worth of interviews with you, I'm sure, they've at least, I think, said, well, we're trying to work out this deal with Democrats where we could fund at least the TSA now. And then I think they're being a little sneaky

and they're gonna try to do something later, but with reconciliation, which Democrats don't have control over and then maybe they'll blame a parliamentarian, but they came up with a plan at the very least because these airports are a disaster. Fund these TSA, which is a democratic plan. Let's fund them. This is a disaster.

Apparently Trump's blocked that and he's told John, he's told Senator Thune the majority leader, you can't do that. We, we want to see the people in these airports suffer. And can you talk about that? And, you know, I know, you know, the Democrats, my own view, you know, is very simple when it comes to ICE and Border Patrol. Personally, I think they should be abolished.

The Democrats have proposed things that are, I think, beyond reasonable, like take off the masks and just do some pretty basic things. And the fact that Republicans are like, nah, you know what, no search warrants, terrorize people with masks.

So how do you even deal with them at all?

Yeah, so let, and you're right in this sense. Here's what's happening and what we have seen across country. Even Nevada, I hear from folks, this is really a top issue. You cannot turn on the TV

without seeing what happened in LA or in Chicago or the most recent in Minneapolis, right? This over-aggressive ICE agents, it's pretty much Trump's police force that he has created because he got tons of money by the Republicans in his one big beautiful bill. They gave him $170 billion just for ICE and Border Patrol. And now he's using that money to hand out $50,000 bonuses to onboard all of these people into these agencies, including in ICE.

He's lowered the standards for hiring them and he's decreased the training for these individuals to get out there. And so what he sent him out is this kind of force to go out and just harass people, not just our immigrants, but US citizens

and violating their rights. So what we are demanding, what my demand was, you need no more money for CBP or ICE right now. What you need is to put these reforms in place. My gosh, the reforms we are asking are similar to what our local police and state police already do. They don't wear masks. They have body cameras. They have de-escalation standards. They have policies and procedures that they follow.

They know how to manage peaceful protesters and not violate their First Amendment rights. They know that they can't arrest and detain a US citizen without due process. There has to be constitutional provisions in place. Part of our local police is building community trust

and working with the community to help them keep them safe. Our ICE officers are not doing that. So we have demanded from the very beginning, no more money. You want money for this? Then you gotta come talk to us and put these reforms in place.

You're not willing to do these reforms? Forget it. We are not going to fund it. Now, what happened with DHS is those two agencies are there, but so is TSA, and so is FEMA, so is the Coast Guard and a couple of other agencies. What I have said from the very beginning, even before we got into this fight over DHS shutdown, is we've already

passed those appropriation bills. Pass them out. We've already done it. We've already agreed to those appropriations. Let's pass them out of Congress right now. We have put TSA bills, the appropriation bills for TSA and those other agencies, not ICE and CBP, but those other agencies up for a vote. We've done it 10 times now, and the Republicans continue to block it. You've got to question, what is their motive here?

To continue to harm our TSA workers and federal workers to get what? And so this is the challenge we have right now with a Republicans or a control not willing to do the right thing here with our TSA workers. And so we are going to push back and fight back against them every step of the way. If they're not going to institute these reforms. The biggest concern is where are they gonna be next? Why is he sending ICE agents into our airports? And is his next step to use this police force

that he has created to go to now in the midterms to our polling sites and threaten people and intimidate them from voting? I think that's a concern many of us have rightfully so that we're calling out what is he trying to achieve here at the end of the day if he can't take yes for an answer to just fund the appropriations that we have

already put together for TSA. And Senator where would you stand if a 200 billion dollar authorization lands on your desk supplemental for this war in Iran right now. How would you vote on that?

Yeah, I would vote against it. This administration has not come to explain why we're even there or an exit strategy. And by the way, because of the big beautiful bill and the other funding the Republicans have provided, they already have over a trillion dollars

that they're utilizing for this unauthorized war. Administration needs to come to us and explain what's going on, and I haven't seen an explanation. I will also say that $200 billion could go, taxpayer money could go towards helping taxpayers

in this state, right? I know with that money, we could fund ACA tax credits for another seven years. We could fund free school lunches for our children for another seven years. I mean, there's things that can be used to help

families here in this country, in Nevada, and across the United States. And so for my purposes moving forward, I'm not only going to hold this administration accountable, but for another $200 billion for this unauthorized war, I can't support.

Senator Cortez Masto, thanks so much for joining us. We appreciate you.

Thank you.

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