Security and stalemate

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MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s Tuesday the 28th of April. Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. 

Good morning, I’m Myrna Brown.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

First up on The World and Everything in It: Washington responds to another attempt on the President’s life.

WORLD’s Carolina Lumetta has more from the nation’s capital.

CAROLINA LUMETTA: White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt underscored the seriousness of Saturday’s foiled attack by holding a press conference yesterday—the same day her maternity leave was supposed to begin.

LEAVITT: This is the third major assassination attempt against President Trump in two years. No other president in history has faced such repeated, serious attempts on his life.

Prosecutors say the suspect's manifesto made clear his intent to target the president and his administration. Leavitt blamed Democrats for what she called "reckless rhetoric" aimed at Trump.

LEAVITT: When you have people in positions of power that are saying things like this every single day for years, you are inspiring violence by people who are already mentally ill. And that's what we've seen against this president for far too long.

She also called on Congress to pass funding to end the partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, the agency that funds and oversees the Secret Service.

LEAVITT: This is a national emergency, and every member of Congress needs to put their country over party and get the Department of Homeland Security funded.

Right now, that rests in the hands of Republican leaders who are split over how to fund DHS. Here’s Senate Majority Leader John Thune yesterday:

THUNE: We've had conversations about the importance of getting all the agencies over there funded, and the fact that now that we've got a budget resolution for them to consider, hopefully that'll be some impetus toward opening up the other agencies.

Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson agreed on paper that the House would pass a truncated DHS appropriations bill while the Senate worked on funding immigration enforcement through reconciliation.

But they’ve clashed over timing. Thune wants the House to pass their bill immediately, while the Republican House Freedom Caucus says reconciliation must come first. 

Then yesterday, Johnson told reporters he would revise the bill the Senate already sent over.

JOHNSON: It has some problematic language because it was haphazardly drafted, and so we stated our objections about that very clearly—

MANU RAJU: So you will never put that on the floor?

JOHNSON: We have a modified version that I think is going to be much better for both chambers. Doesn’t change most of the substance, but it makes sure that we’re not going to orphan two of the primary agencies of DHS. We have to make sure that immigration law is enforced, and that the border is safe and secure.

Any changes the House makes must go back to the Senate for another vote. 

Meanwhile, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the department will run out of emergency funding by Thursday unless Congress acts. And reconciliation will still take weeks to work on. 

Here’s what Thune told WORLD:

THUNE: You know, the House is going to have to defer to them about when, when they take it up, but hopefully be able to get it done.

But as of now, the DHS appropriation is not on the House’s busy floor calendar for this week.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Carolina Lumetta, in Washington.

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