A (0:00)

Foreigna I'm back with a new mini episode of Pod Force One. This feature is a little more topical and relevant to my job as a columnist for the New York Post. Today's topic is about Republican infighting, which does not bode well for the midterms. Lucky for them, their opponents have insanely unpopular policies. There is nothing more infuriating to a frustrated air traveler delayed for hours by the Democrat shutdown than to see senators strolling smugly by with VIP escorts. The worst offender last week was Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who hightailed it out of D.C. friday morning, hours after stitching up a duplicitous 2am deal to end the shutdown by caving into Democrat demands to defund ICE and border enforcement, at least for the time being. Elements of DHS were funded in the one big beautiful bill last year, but Thune's deal freezes out immigration enforcement and border security functions that are all important as we go to war against the world's largest sponsor of Islamic terrorism. He knew this would be unacceptable to the Republican base. In one fell swoop, Thune ceded the moral high ground to Democrats, who now can blame Republican intransigents for their shutdowns. Breezing past the queues at Reagan National Airport with a grin for the cameras Friday, the glib Marlborough man look alike couldn't have been more pleased with himself. He controls the Senate, and it was his amendment to the DHS funding bill that cut immigration enforcement funding in the dead of night while most of his conference was asleep. I don't know what the House will do, he claimed before jetting home to South Dakota for two weeks. It didn't take long to find out. House Speaker Mike Johnson soon held a furious press conference denouncing Thune's deal with the devil. This gambit that was done last night is a joke, he said. I'm quite convinced that it can't be that every Senate Republican read the language of this bill. House Republicans will have no part in reopening the border and stopping illegal immigration enforcement. One House Republican described Thune's deal with the craftier Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer as unconditional surrender masquerading as a solution. Another called his Senate stablemates cowards who chickened out because they wanted to go home for two weeks. As Johnson said, Joe Biden's open border was the big issue of the 2024 election. 78 million Americans voted for President Donald J. Trump and the Republican Party to come in and se that border, he said, and deport dangerous criminal illegal aliens. We have done that. The Democrats hate it. They want the border reopened and they want to protect dangerous criminal illegal aliens over American citizens. We can have no part of that, end quote. He's dead right of course. And his dismay echoed across the MAGA base all weekend just to drive home the insanity of Republicans joining Democrats in their single minded determination to stop Trump deporting criminals with no right to be in this country. In the sanctuary city of New York last week, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg offered an absurdly lenient six month plea deal to a transgender illegal alien who raped a 14 year old boy after following him into a bathroom. According to DHS. Nicole Alexandra Contreras Suarez, 31, from Colombia was quote, let into our country by the Biden administration, then and again released from jail following his arrests for armed robbery, assault with a dangerous weapon and prostitution. This dangerous pervert should never have been here to commit such heinous crimes. And yet, like every other illegal alien predator who has hurt innocent Americans, he is protected and coddled by Democrats. Immigration should be a slam dunk moral and political advantage for Republicans at the ballot box this November. And yet they seem hell bent on losing. Between the Senate GOP's sneaky 2am deal, its inability to pass Trump's pet save America Election Integrity act, and refusal to even try to abolish the filibuster or somehow impose a price for Democrat obstruction, you have to assume there are Republican senators who are content for Democrats to win the midterms, impeach Trump and derail his agenda. A few are genuinely Trump deranged, others labour under the old fashioned conceit that finding genteel common cause with Democrats is still possible. These are the fossils who still believe their former Senate pal Joe Biden was honest, a great dad and a moderate. Either way, it's easier for these GOP senators to be in opposition because then they can pretend to fight Democrats while doing nothing. The Johnson Thune showdown is just one sign of discord inside the Republican Party as we hurtle towards the midterms. Former counterterrorism adviser Joe Kent's determined campaign to undermine the rationale for the Iran war Since he quit, the Trump administration is deepening the rift on the right as Operation Epic Fury enters its fifth week. Last week, Kent enraged Charlie Kirk's friends at TP USA by claiming the FBI had stopped him, pursuing potential foreign links to Kirk's alleged assassin Tyler Robinson, and expressing a willingness to testify for the defense if necessary. Meanwhile, influential podcasters Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly are still going hammer and tongs with the likes of Ben Shapiro and Mark Levin over Israel. And last week the once vaunted Conservative Conference CPAC was a washout with no big draw cards, empty chairs as far as the eye could see, and persistent allegations that the organisers are a bunch of grifters. Meanwhile, as per usual, Democrats remain united behind their insanely unpopular radical left policies. They show no signs of ending their reckless sabotage, which hurts government workers, inconveniences everyday Americans and may even place us all in danger. In fact, they're gleeful. After all, the shutdowns seem to work for them. Like the 2020 riots, they add to a general sense of chaos around the Trump administration, which ultimately damages Republicans. They gum up the routine work of government and place untold stresses and strains on the administration. But in one sense, the joke may end up on the Democrats. For one thing, the traveling public is seeing firsthand that every vile slur Democrats and their antifa all have thrown at ice agencies. A lie flying out of LaGuardia Sunday morning was a breeze, thanks to the friendly, helpful ICE agents who had taken over almost all TSA roles. They were there to pleasantly check your boarding pass and efficiently help load your belongings into bins for the X ray machine. Up to 75% of ICE agents are either military veterans or former law enforcement, so their service makes Democrats slander against them all the more unforgivable. But it also means they are supremely competent and trained to handle emergencies, not to mention withstand abuse with professional grace. For all to see. They are a credit to their uniforms. Now, White House border czar Tom Homan is talking about keeping some ICE agents on at airports to help TSA, which is understaffed because nearly 500 unpaid agents have quit after enduring their third Democrat shutdown in six months. At a time of heightened security threats, Hyman believes ICE provides an added layer of security to our airports. And there's the added bonus that the Democrats favorite constituents, illegal aliens, will suffer the mild inconvenience of having to avoid flying for fear of being deported or, in Democrat fiction, shot and sent to a Florida gulag. Disunity is death in politics, but so is the Democrat betrayal of America. Thanks for listening. Don't forget to come back on Wednesday for the next episode of Pod Force One with the last man who may be able to save New York, Republican gubernatorial hopeful Bruce Blakeman.