Trump Breaks Down Resistance: Schumer Forced to Bow!
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer defended Democrats’ decision on Tuesday evening to remain seated after President Trump asked them to stand up in support of protecting American citizens from illegal aliens during his State of the Union Address.
In an interview with CNN on Wednesday morning, the New York Democrat shockingly claimed that federal immigration authorities were operating outside of the law rather than defending their jobs, while also appearing to defer to individuals in the country illegally.
“We agree we need to protect Americans. He’s not. By his reckless ICE agency in Minnesota two Americans were killed. Americans are being pulled out of their cars and beaten. Americans houses, the doors are being knocked down, you know, without a warrant,” Schumer claimed.
“And no other police department in America run by Americans has — has done what ICE has done. So yes, we want to protect Americans. He’s not doing it. And that’s why the American people are against what ICE is doing. So it was legitimate and right not to stand,” he added.
ICE operations are being carried out in accordance with federal law and Department of Homeland Security guidelines, according to multiple officials within the Trump administration.
In addition, ICE and Border Patrol agents have been concentrating on illegal aliens with criminal records, including child-related sex crimes, assaults, and murder.
Meanwhile, Schumer called on Trump Tuesday ahead of the State of the Union to clarify his objectives regarding the increasing pressure campaign and military buildup aimed at Iran.
The request followed a classified briefing earlier in the day for senior congressional leaders, during which Cabinet officials provided updates on the developing situation in Iran.
Other lawmakers also expressed serious concerns in response to the briefing.
“It’s very serious and the president has an obligation to make his goals public,” Schumer told Jewish Insider after the briefing.
In addition, Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, similarly called on the administration to lay out “what our country’s goals are, what our country’s interests are and how we’re going to protect American interests in the region.”
Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT), the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told the outlet he was “very concerned” and warned that “wars in the Middle East don’t go well for presidents, for the country, and we have not heard articulated a single good reason for why now is the moment to launch yet another war in the Middle East.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said the administration is “giving a lot of thought to the situation. And I appreciate where they’re coming from.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt revealed to reporters on Tuesday that President Trump is “always the final decision-maker” on possible action against Iran, Conservative Brief reported.
During an appearance on “Fox & Friends” Tuesday morning, Leavitt said that US airstrikes in June destroyed Iran’s nuclear capabilities, even though special envoy Steve Witkoff said over the weekend that Tehran was “probably a week away from having industrial-grade bomb-making material.”
According to Leavitt, the success of Operation Midnight Hammer “does not mean that Iran may never try again to establish a nuclear program that could directly threaten the United States and our allies abroad, and that’s what the president wants to ensure can never happen again.”
Leavitt also criticized a recent spate of stories speculating on when or whether Trump would order an attack in the Middle East.
“The president is always the final decision-maker around here,” she said. “And I’ve seen a lot of sensationalist reporting over the past day that is just completely untrue, and anyone speculating to the media, hiding behind an anonymous source, pretending to know what President Trump is thinking or a decision he will make with respect to action against Iran has no idea what they’re talking about.”
Obama Accuses JD Vance Of Promoting ‘Blood And Soil’ Politics
Former President Barack Obama rarely mentions Vice President JD Vance by name, but that changed this week with one of his sharpest public attacks since Vance took office.
The comments immediately fueled speculation that Democrats are beginning to focus more attention on the vice president as Republicans look ahead to the post-Trump era.
Speaking Thursday during a conversation with author Malcolm Gladwell, Obama accused Vance of promoting what he described as a “blood and soil” vision of America, despite being married to Usha Vance, the daughter of Indian immigrants.
Obama made the remarks while discussing the Reconstruction era and arguing that many of the same debates over citizenship, voting rights and national identity continue today.
“We have a politics now that at least one of our major parties has been captured by politics that is not that subtle about suggesting that ‘We the people’ means a certain kind of people,” Obama said.
“When you have the vice president, current vice president, making a speech that is basically a blood and soil version of ‘We the people,’ that it matters who your parents were and how long they’ve been here despite him being married to a daughter of an immigrant himself.”
The phrase “blood and soil” is historically associated with Nazi Germany and white nationalist ideology.
Obama went on to argue that debates over who belongs in America remain central to the nation’s politics.
“That echoes, then, ideas about who can be a citizen, who belongs, who gets to make decisions,” he said.
Gladwell followed by accusing Vance of hypocrisy, arguing that the vice president was making what he called a nativist argument despite his own family’s immigrant background.
Obama agreed.
“That is progress,” Obama said.
“Listen, hypocrisy is progress. It is, because it means that you feel guilty enough to either lie to yourself or others.”
Fox News Digital reported that it reached out to Vance’s office for comment.
Obama did not identify the specific speech he was criticizing, but Vance’s most recent nationally televised remarks came during Independence Day celebrations marking America’s 250th birthday.
In that speech, Vance encouraged Americans to reject what he called a “two-dimensional view” of the country focused only on its historical failures.
“So what I’d ask you to do, my fellow Americans, on our 250th birthday, is to reject the two-dimensional view of your fellow citizens and reject the two-dimensional view of your country,” Vance said.
“Reject the view of your nation that sees only its sins, but not its grace and its greatness.”
He also emphasized that America’s accomplishments were achieved by “a common people working towards a common future.”
Obama has generally avoided making Vance a regular target since the vice president took office.
One notable exception came during the 2024 presidential campaign when then-Vice President Kamala Harris selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate.
Without naming Vance directly, Obama contrasted Harris’ choice with the Republican ticket.
“When a presidential candidate chooses a running mate, it says a lot about who they are and what kind of president they’ll be,” Obama said at the time, Fox News reported.
Political observers have increasingly discussed Vance as a potential frontrunner for the 2028 Republican presidential nomination, though he has not announced any plans to run.
Against that backdrop, Obama’s unusually direct criticism is likely to fuel speculation that some Democrats are beginning to sharpen their message against a politician they view as a likely future standard-bearer for the Republican Party. While no Democratic leaders have publicly described their strategy in those terms, prominent figures often begin drawing contrasts with potential future rivals well before a presidential campaign officially begins.
Whether that proves to be the case remains to be seen, but Obama’s remarks marked one of his most pointed critiques of Vance to date and ensured the vice president once again found himself at the center of the national political conversation.
