On Wednesday’s CNN This Morning, host Audie Cornish and her guest panel shifted the pervious day’s narrative with an actual allusion to the idea of the DHS shutdown being caused by Democrats. After, Cornish and panelist Antjuan Seawright framed the shutdown as a simple attempt to reform ICE while Republicans refused to fund other aspects of DHS.It should, once again, be noted that ICE was already funded from the Big Beautiful Bill. Also, the partial funding push from Democrats is a new phenomenon in the face of airport security delays and the Iran conflict.Cornish introduced the segment with information on increased wait time at airports before correctly stating the situation: “So, when is this going to end? I mean agents have been working without pay for more than a month. Democrats have been refusing to fund DHS without reforms to ICE.”Cornish shifted to the Democrat angle of ICE reforms needed to end the shutdown, as she took issue with a White House list, which listed possible reforms in negotiations:Then, Seawright started the talking point of Democrats apparent want to now fund everything at DHS besides immigration enforcement. He actually slipped up and said Dems want to fund everything except ICE and DHS.He said, “while Republicans want to hoodwink the American people that Democrats are holding up funding for TSA agents and so forth, they’ve been funding bills brought to the floor to be voted on, to open up every single aspect of the agencies, with the exception of ICE, DHS and ICE.”After a video the Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) and Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX) confrontation at an airport, panelist Charlie Dent said it was bad for politicians to shutdown the government for policy changes:Cornish said, “that’s true,” before Dent moved on to agree ICE should be reformed while saying it is “absolutely wrong” that “TSA workers, the coast guard, FEMA” are “paying the price.”Panelist and NOTUS reporter, Jasmine Wright, left the segment with an admittance about the topic of ICE: At least there was finally a checkup on reality at CNN where they finally admit Democrats are the cause of an unneeded shutdown.The transcript is below. Click “expand”:
CNN This Morning
March 18, 2026
Read Full Article: https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/nicholas-spinnato/2026/03/19/cnn-admits-dems-refuse-fund-dhs-frames-good-ice-reforms
