As Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees continue to work without pay because of the Democrats' refusal to fund the Department of Homeland Security, it becomes increasingly harder to see what, if anything, the Democrats are getting out of it. Recently, CNN's Kaitlin Collins tried to ascertain exactly that from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (I). It went about as well as you might think.
READ MORE: There It Is: House Democrat Gives Away the Game During Heated Exchange on DHS Funding Stalemate
On Tuesday's "The Source with Kaitlin Collins," Collins asked Sanders point-blank, “Do you believe that Democrats have achieved anything as a part of the DHS shutdown?” Sanders non-answer, “They try to make the point that ICE is out of control. ICE is out of control, and it needs fundamental reforms.”
Senator Bernie Sanders REFUSES to say whether Democrats have achieved ANYTHING with their DHS shutdown.
— Overton (@overton_news) March 25, 2026
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins pressed him twice — he dodged both times.
COLLINS: “Another thing that your colleagues that you caucus with, Democrats are working on with Republicans… pic.twitter.com/ohYobuNuUj
To Collins' credit, she mildly pushed back, but Bernie stuck to non-answers, saying, “Well, you’ll have to judge that. I think they’re trying very hard." TSA wait lines at America's airports have rapidly become nightmares as lines have stretched through airports. Many TSA agents continue to call out sick, and nearly 500 agents have quit due to not being paid for almost 40 days. The impasse has caused wait times in airport security lines to take as long as four and a half hours to get through.
Since the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, Democrats have demanded "reforms" to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. Democrats are demanding that ICE agents be prohibited from wearing masks and entering private property without a judicial warrant, and required to display their identities, even though they and their families are facing an 8,000 percent increase in death threats and a 1,300 percent increase in assaults.
On Wednesday, every Senate Democrat except Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) voted down funding for TSA, as well as other federal agencies like the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Coast Guard, and the Secret Service.
50,000 TSA agents are working without pay, struggling to pay their mortgage and buy groceries.
— Senate Republicans (@SenateGOP) March 25, 2026
But Democrats are “giddy” with the pain they’re causing.
They need to stop punishing Americans to protect illegal alien criminals.
As is often the case, when Democrats don't get their way, it's the American people who pay the price. Are Democrats again trying to "punish" American voters for not voting Democrats into power, and even worse, reelecting Donald Trump? Forcing Americans to wait in four-hour-long security lines sure seems to be the latest Democrat punishment.
Deputy Administrator of the TSA, Ha Nguyen McNeill, recently testified at a House hearing, stating what could happen if Democrats continue to drag their feet on TSA funding.
“This is a dire situation. At this point, we have to look at all options on the table. And that does require us to, at some point, make very difficult choices as to which airports we might try to keep open and which ones we might have to shut down as our callout rates increase.”
The longer the Democrat temper tantrum drags on, Bernie Sanders and the rest of the Democrat Party are going to have a much harder time coming up with benefits to that tantrum.
Democrat Senator John Fetterman says they’ve lost touch with working Americans — admitting Democrats are keeping the government shut down for nothing:
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 26, 2026
“We knew going into it, that shutdown...would have zero impact…all we've done is we’ve punished TSA and other employees..." pic.twitter.com/2lGqIw8DtN
Editor's Note: The Democrat Party has never been less popular as voters reject its globalist agenda.
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