RvR #10: The Gambit
Rhetoric vs. Reality is a weekly series documenting the gap between what Rep. Tom Emmer says and what the record shows.
For 42 days, Rep. Tom Emmer called the Democratic position on DHS funding “defund the police,” “mass amnesty,” and “Absolutely RIDICULOUS.” He passed the same bill three times. He told 14 outlets he would not negotiate. Then the Senate unanimously adopted the Democratic position — fund everything except ICE and CBP — and Majority Leader Thune admitted they knew it would end this way from the start.
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963 days since Rep. Emmer’s last in-person town hall — August 9, 2023, Hamburg, MN.
DHS Shutdown: Day 44. Both chambers have left Washington for a two-week recess. No resolution is scheduled.
The Quote Reel
The following are Tom Emmer’s own words on the DHS shutdown, from 14 media appearances between February 4 and March 27, 2026. All quotes are from MN-06 Watch transcripts or verified reporting.
On February 4, he told Lara Trump on Fox News that Democratic reform proposals were “non-starters for almost all of our members.” Judicial warrants? “That’s all about just mass amnesty.” On February 10, at a House leadership stakeout, he said Democrats’ demands were “comparable to mass amnesty for criminal illegals.” On February 11, he told Matt Gaetz: “That would just be mass amnesty for illegals, Matt. It’s a no-go.”
On February 16 — the quote that matters most — CBS Mornings host Vladimir Duthiers asked directly: “Are you talking to them? It sounds like you’re not talking to them.”
Emmer’s answer: “We’ve done our job, Vlad. I mean, that would suggest that there’s more to do on the House side.”
Duthiers pressed: “So you’re not talking to Democrats?”
“No, to the Democrats. The President is the chief negotiator.”
That was Day 3 of the shutdown. Forty more days followed. The Majority Whip had declared his job done before it started.
On February 16, he told Newsmax the shutdown was “just the next chapter of the Democrats’ defund the police movement.” On Kudlow: “Chuck Schumer lacks all credibility.”
On February 23, on Fox News, he called Schumer “that dolt” and said Democrats “don’t look at the law. They don’t care what the law is.” Same day, he told the John Fredericks Show he’d been waiting “a month” and proposed the Senate “modify the filibuster rule.”
That same February 23, Emmer addressed the National Association of Counties Legislative Conference. Different audience, different script. “We may not always agree with each other,” he told the room. “We may even bump into each other and challenge each other at times. That’s not a bad thing. This is what teams do. But they come together at the end.” He quoted Paul Ryan: “We used to go out and campaign against each other really hard, knock down, drag out campaigns, and then we’d get back to Washington, D.C., and we would have the discussions and get the job done.” He told county officials that governance starts with communication — “where we don’t get caught up in the politics.” That was Day 10 of a shutdown caused by the absence of exactly that.
On February 24, back on Squawk Box, the script was identical: “The real thing when it comes to a judicial warrant layered on top of it is to slow and delay the process. In essence, it’s just mass amnesty all over again.”
The war started on February 28. It changed nothing about the shutdown. On March 9, Emmer told Squawk Box that gas prices and the Iran conflict were “a short-term cost” — and then pivoted to DHS: “We have Coast Guard, kids that are serving in our Coast Guard, stationed in the Middle East, and they’re not gonna get a paycheck.”
On March 16, Day 30, he told Mornings with Maria he supported suspending the Senate filibuster to pass DHS funding. He called it “reasonable.” He called Schumer “insane.” He called Democrats “deranged.”
On March 26, Day 41, his @GOPMajorityWhip account posted the third House vote on DHS: “FULLY FUND…for the THIRD time…Absolutely RIDICULOUS.”
On March 27, Day 42, the Senate unanimously adopted the Democratic position — fund everything except ICE and CBP — at 2 AM. Emmer criticized the Senate for passing a bill “at 3 a.m. in the morning, when Americans are sleeping.”
Fourteen appearances. One script. Zero negotiations.
Three Votes, Same Wall
The Majority Whip’s job is to find a path to passage. Emmer found the same path three times and it led to the same wall.
Vote 1 — H.R. 7744: Passed House, blocked in Senate. Vote 2 — same bill, second passage: blocked again. Vote 3 — H.R. 8029, the “Pay Our Homeland Defenders Act,” March 26: passed 218-206.
On March 27, with the Senate’s bipartisan bill in hand, the House passed a fourth bill — a 60-day CR, 213-203. Three Democrats crossed: Davis, Gluesenkamp Perez, and Cuellar. Rep. Jared Golden, who had voted with Republicans on earlier DHS bills, voted no. The Whip’s coalition didn’t grow. It shrank.
The Senate bill had the votes to pass the House. Minority Leader Jeffries said so publicly, repeatedly: “If that bill is brought to the floor today it will pass. The Trump-Republican DHS shutdown will be over.” On the House floor: “There is a bipartisan bill that every single senator, Democrats and Republicans, supported, that has the votes to pass today.” The full Democratic leadership — Jeffries, Whip Katherine Clark, Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar — issued a joint statement calling House Republicans “the only thing standing between the American people and a much-needed end to the airport chaos.” Rep. Steny Hoyer offered to cross the aisle to back the procedural rule — an almost unheard-of step. Senior GOP aides privately told CNN they were pushing the party into “more treacherous political territory, with no clear plan.” Senate Republican leadership told NBC News their own bipartisan bill was the only viable path forward and Thune had no plans to bring the Senate back for the House version. GOP moderates voiced concern on the conference call that they would now own the shutdown. Rep. Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey told CNN: “For God’s sake, we’ve got to open this piece of government up.”
Emmer didn’t bring the Senate bill to the floor. He sent out the whip notice for the 60-day CR instead. Schumer called it “dead on arrival.” Both chambers left for a two-week recess. No return date has been set.
The Filibuster Flip
On April 28, 2021 — when Democrats controlled the Senate — Emmer tweeted a warning: “With two additional votes in the Senate, Dems would have the votes to pass dangerous far-left legislation like: The Green New Deal, Packing the court, Eliminating the filibuster.”
On November 21, 2025 — with Republicans in the majority — he told the Chris Stigall Show: “I share the president’s frustration. I understand exactly why this is so darn frustrating because of this rule in the Senate that you’ve got to get 60 votes.” In October 2025, his @GOPMajorityWhip account posted: “Senate Democrats are using the filibuster to BLOCK that vote from taking place.”
On February 23, 2026, he proposed modifying the filibuster on the John Fredericks Show: “Maybe he just modifies the filibuster rule to provide that in the event the government is not fully funded there is no filibuster rule.”
On March 16, on Mornings with Maria, he called that proposal “reasonable.”
The rule didn’t change. The outcome he wanted did.
What It Actually Takes
On March 16, Emmer acknowledged the real obstacle on Mornings with Maria: “We’ve got a small group of members who have made it very clear that they’re not voting for anything until the Senate gets the Save America Act passed into law.”
TSA workers were not the mission. They were the leverage.
Three days later, on KNSI radio in St. Cloud, Emmer said the quiet part out loud: “Could you imagine — we could lift that thing and we could pass the department of homeland security bill ourselves and at the same time the Save America Act on it and pass them both with fifty one votes.”
The SAVE Act — a voter ID bill that 28% of Americans support by name (CBS News/YouGov) and that would affect 21 million eligible citizens who lack required documents (Brennan Center) — was the price of relief. On Day 42, Freedom Caucus members were still demanding it be attached to DHS funding.
On the House floor, Rep. Rosa DeLauro read the numbers: 85% of ICE and CBP employees were being paid through reconciliation funding. Secret Service: 75%. Coast Guard: 85%. TSA workers: zero. “The TSA administrator confirmed yesterday that the Department made the decision not to pay TSA workers,” DeLauro said. “They are picking and choosing whom they want to pay.”
The agencies aligned with the deportation agenda kept their money. The agency that screens 2.5 million passengers a day got nothing. DHS made the choice. DeLauro confirmed it: “The TSA administrator confirmed yesterday that the Department made the decision not to pay TSA workers.”
By Day 42: 510 TSA officers had quit. The national callout rate hit 11.83% — the highest of the shutdown — with more than 3,450 personnel missing work. Callout rates exceeded 40% at Houston, Atlanta, and Baltimore. TSA Acting Administrator Ha Nguyen McNeill told Congress the situation was “dire” — officers were selling plasma, sleeping in cars, taking second jobs. Wait times at some airports exceeded four and a half hours. McNeill warned that smaller airports might have to close.
Here is the sequence: Emmer invoked unpaid TSA workers on 14 shows to blame Democrats. Democrats offered nine times to fund TSA directly, separating it from the ICE dispute. Republicans blocked all nine. The Senate then passed a bill that would pay TSA workers through legislation. Emmer rejected it.
Then Trump signed a presidential memo directing DHS to pay TSA workers using money from last summer’s reconciliation bill — a law that earmarked funds for immigration enforcement and border security. TSA is not mentioned in that legislation. ABC News reported it was “unclear under what legal authority” Trump was acting, since Congress holds the power of the purse. The memo’s language was vague: use funds with “a reasonable and logical nexus to TSA operations.” DHS says paychecks could arrive as early as Monday. How long that funding lasts — nobody knows.
What is clear is the political function. Thune said the executive order “takes the immediate pressure off.” The Hill reported it gave Republicans “breathing room to continue negotiating.” Johnson cited the order as reason enough to reject the Senate bill.
The officers were never the concern. They were the pressure point. Once Trump relieved the pressure by executive action, the Whip rejected the bill that would have paid them — and every other unfunded DHS employee — through legislation. Coast Guard families, FEMA, cybersecurity workers: still unpaid. The executive order covers TSA. It does not cover anyone else.
They Knew
At 2 AM on March 27, the Senate passed the Democratic position by unanimous consent — fund TSA, the Coast Guard, FEMA, CISA. No funding for ICE enforcement and removal. No reforms.
On his way out of the chamber, Majority Leader Thune told reporters:
“The good news is we anticipated this a year ago. One of the reasons we frontloaded, pre-loaded up the ‘one big, beautiful bill’ with advanced funding for Homeland Security was because we anticipated this was likely going to happen, and it did.”
They anticipated it. They planned for it. ICE and CBP had $75 billion in reconciliation money the whole time. Thune also admitted: “The Dems wanted reforms. We tried to work with them on reforms. They ended up getting no reforms.”
Forty-two days. Zero reforms. Zero negotiations initiated by the Majority Whip. The outcome was anticipated from the start.
Emmer’s response: reject the Senate bill, pass a 60-day CR the Senate won’t take up, and leave town.
The Closing Question
On February 16, CBS Mornings asked the House Majority Whip whether he was negotiating with Democrats.
“We’ve done our job, Vlad.”
On March 27, the Senate Majority Leader said they knew the Democratic position would prevail.
“We anticipated this was likely going to happen.”
If Thune knew, did Emmer know?
And if he knew — what were the 42 days for?
Previous installments: RvR #9: “The Price of the Ticket” | RvR #8: “Peace Through Whatever” | RvR #7: The $43 Million Socialist Wish List
All Emmer quotes sourced from MN-06 Watch transcripts, verified reporting, or his verified accounts (@GOPMajorityWhip, @tomemmer).
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Emmer’s Own Words
All transcripts independently produced by and on file at MN-06 Watch:
My View with Lara Trump, Fox News, February 4, 2026 · Fox 9 Minneapolis, February 6, 2026 · House Leadership Stakeout, C-SPAN, February 10, 2026 · The Matt Gaetz Show, February 11, 2026 · CBS Mornings, February 16, 2026 · Fox & Friends, February 16, 2026 · Kudlow, Fox Business, February 16, 2026 · The National Report, Newsmax, February 16, 2026 · NewsNation with Katie Pavlich, February 18, 2026 · The Big Weekend Show, Fox News, February 23, 2026 · The John Fredericks Show, February 23, 2026 · NACo Legislative Conference, February 23, 2026 (PDF · Video) · Squawk Box, CNBC, February 24, 2026 · Squawk Box, CNBC, March 9, 2026 · Mornings with Maria, Fox Business, March 16, 2026 · Hot Talk with the Ox, KNSI St. Cloud, March 19, 2026 · The Chris Stigall Show, Salem, November 21, 2025
Emmer Tweets
@GOPMajorityWhip, April 28, 2021 — filibuster warning
@GOPMajorityWhip, October 2025 — filibuster complaint
@GOPMajorityWhip, March 26, 2026 — “THIRD time...Absolutely RIDICULOUS”
@GOPMajorityWhip, March 27, 2026 — Kudlow clip, whip notice
Congressional Record
H.R. 7744 — DHS Appropriations, passed House — clerk.house.gov
H.R. 8029 — “Pay Our Homeland Defenders Act,” passed House 218-206, March 26, 2026 — clerk.house.gov
House 60-day CR, passed 213-203, March 27, 2026 — clerk.house.gov
Senate DHS funding bill, passed by unanimous consent, March 27, 2026, 2:20 AM
Senate Majority Leader Thune — “We Anticipated This”
CNN: “Senate unanimously moves to fund most of DHS, except ICE and border patrol, in rare overnight session,” March 27, 2026 — cnn.com
Fox News: “Senate unanimously advances DHS funding deal without ICE and CBP amid shutdown,” March 27, 2026 — foxnews.com
DeLauro Floor Speeches
“DeLauro on House Floor: TSA administrator confirmed yesterday that DHS made the decision not to pay TSA workers,” March 25, 2026 — House Appropriations Committee (Minority)
“DeLauro on House Floor: There is no practical need to condition funding for TSA on funding for ICE,” March 26, 2026 — House Appropriations Committee (Minority)
Senate Bill Viability in the House
Jeffries: “If that bill is brought to the floor today it will pass” — CBS News live updates, March 27, 2026 — cbsnews.com
Jeffries: “every single senator, Democrats and Republicans, supported” — CNN, March 27, 2026 — cnn.com
Jeffries: “This could end, and should end, today” — PBS NewsHour, March 27, 2026 — pbs.org
Jeffries: “The only thing standing between ending this chaos or not are House Republicans” — CNBC, March 27, 2026 — cnbc.com
Democratic leadership joint statement: “the only thing standing between the American people and a much-needed end to the airport chaos” — CBS News, March 27, 2026 — cbsnews.com
Rep. Steny Hoyer offered to back the procedural rule — Roll Call, March 27, 2026 — rollcall.com
Senior GOP aides: “more treacherous political territory, with no clear plan” — CNN, March 27, 2026 — cnn.com
Senate GOP leadership: bipartisan bill was the only viable path — NBC News, March 27, 2026 — nbcnews.com
GOP moderates worried about owning the shutdown — The Hill, March 27, 2026 — thehill.com
Rep. Van Drew: “For God’s sake, we’ve got to open this piece of government up” — CNN, March 27, 2026 — cnn.com
Trump Executive Order — TSA Pay
White House presidential memo text — whitehouse.gov
CNN: “Trump has ordered TSA workers be paid. Here’s what we know,” March 27, 2026 — cnn.com
ABC News: “unclear under what legal authority” — abcnews.com
Thune: order “takes the immediate pressure off” — CNBC, March 26, 2026 — cnbc.com
The Hill: gave Republicans “breathing room” — thehill.com
NPR: national emergency would be “almost certain to face legal challenges” — npr.org
Shutdown Data
510 TSA officers quit — CBS News live updates, March 27, 2026 — cbsnews.com
11.83% callout rate, 3,450+ personnel — NBC News live updates, March 27-28, 2026 — nbcnews.com
40%+ callout rates at Houston, Atlanta, Baltimore — NBC News, March 27, 2026 — nbcnews.com
TSA Acting Administrator McNeill testimony — PBS NewsHour, March 25, 2026 — pbs.org
McNeill: “dire,” selling plasma, sleeping in cars — NPR, March 27, 2026 — npr.org
Nine Democratic attempts to fund TSA separately blocked — ABC News, March 25, 2026 — abcnews.com
Schumer: “nine times” — ABC News, March 25, 2026 — abcnews.com
Reporting — House Rejects Senate Bill
CNN: “House GOP rejects Senate DHS deal, prolonging shutdown,” March 27, 2026 — cnn.com
NBC News: “House Republicans pass DHS funding bill that Democrats call ‘dead on arrival,’” March 27, 2026 — nbcnews.com
NPR: “House Republicans reject Senate DHS bill, Trump signs TSA directive,” March 27, 2026 — npr.org
CBS News live updates, March 27, 2026 — cbsnews.com
Washington Post: “House GOP passes its own funding bill, rejecting Senate version,” March 27, 2026 — washingtonpost.com
The Hill: “House Republicans pass short-term DHS funding bill after rejecting Senate deal,” March 27, 2026 — thehill.com
The Hill: “DHS spending fight hits a wall: 5 takeaways,” March 27, 2026 — thehill.com
Roll Call: “House GOP rejects bipartisan Senate bill to end DHS shutdown,” March 27, 2026 — rollcall.com
CNBC: “House GOP spikes DHS funding proposal, extending shutdown,” March 27, 2026 — cnbc.com
PBS NewsHour: “House Republicans reject Senate bill to reopen DHS,” March 27, 2026 — pbs.org
Polling and Research
CBS News/YouGov poll: 28% support SAVE Act by name, March 2026
Brennan Center for Justice: 21 million eligible citizens lack required documents — brennancenter.org
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