President Donald Trump on Tuesday criticized two Republican senators as the deadline to avert a government shutdown looms Friday.
Sens. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, were the first GOP senators to call for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to step down after the reaction to Saturday's fatal shooting of an armed protester, drawing Trump's rebuke.
"Well, they're both losers," Trump told ABC News in a call Tuesday night. "You know, what can I tell you? They're terrible senators.
"One is gone and the other should be gone."
Trump has publicly defended Noem's work at DHS, despite calls for her resignation, firing, or impeachment by Congress.
"In the meantime, I have a border that's perfect — the strongest, one of the strongest borders anywhere in the world," Trump added to ABC News.
"We went from the weakest border in the world to one of the strongest borders in the world.
"So what Murkowski says — she's always against the Republicans anyway. And Tillis decided to drop out. So you know, he lost his voice once he did that."
But both Murkowski and Tillis are still voting members of the Senate, which is weighing passage of the final six appropriations bills in a House-passed omnibus package.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has vowed to force the DHS funding portion out of the bill, which could trigger a partial government shutdown for at least several days while the House is out of session.
Republicans hold a narrow majority in the Senate, even as they remain mostly united against Democrats' latest government shutdown tactic:
119th Congress (2025-'27):
— Majority: Republicans (53 seats).
— Minority: Democrats (45 seats).
— Other parties: two independents.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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