From Washington: Sen. Padilla Incident Creates More Capitol Hill Divide
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Sunday, June 15th, 2025. I'm Ryan Schmelz. A U.S. Senator's removal from a Department of Homeland Security press conference sends shockwaves across Capitol Hill. Alex Padilla was all the way across the country in Los Angeles when this went down.

but it resonated throughout the halls of Congress. And primary voters made their picks for two gubernatorial primaries, how the chairman of the RNC plans to keep Virginia red and turn New Jersey. I think that we are definitely ready for a change in New Jersey, that people want to see a common sense agenda that's going to be brought to bear there. This is the Fox News Rundown from Washington. ♪

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus left the House floor in March to Senate Majority Leader John Thune's office just hours after Senator Alex Padilla was forcibly removed from a Department of Homeland Security press conference. Senator Alex Padilla, I have questions for the secretary because the fact of the matter is a half a dozen violent criminals that you're rotating on your on your

If this is how the Department of Homeland Security responds to a senator with a question, you can only imagine what they're doing to farm workers, to cooks, to day laborers out in the Los Angeles community and throughout California and throughout the United States.

the country. House Speaker Mike Johnson believes a censure would be appropriate for the California Democrat as Republicans believe his move interrupting Secretary Kristi Noem was political, theatrical and unprofessional. It also comes as Republicans took their first step in codifying the cuts from the Department of Government Efficiency. Today's passage of this initial rescissions package marks a critical step

towards a more responsible and transparent government that puts the interests of the American taxpayers first. The spending cuts to foreign aid and public broadcasting passing narrowly and now heads to the Senate, where its fate is uncertain. Yeah, Nick LaLotta, who is a Republican from New York, he says he talked to the Speaker, he talked to the whip, Tom Emmer, and got some assurances and said he was okay with that. Fox's senior congressional correspondent, Chad Pergram.

Don Bacon, who is a Republican from one of the most left-leaning districts in the country, represented by a Republican in Omaha, said that he was told that public broadcasting would be preserved, even though this bill expressly cuts funding for public broadcasting for NPR and PBS.

So I'm not quite sure how that changed things for them, but it did. You know, all that matters is the final result. Democrats, had they had all their people there, probably would have been able to defeat the bill.

But again, this probably isn't going to get through the Senate. They do not need 60 votes on a rescissions or spending cancellation bill. But this is where things come down to the Republicans. They talk a good game and we're going to do all these big cuts. This is only $9.4 billion. This was recommended by Doge, which, as you know, is very, very popular. And if they don't get this through, well, what happens? You know, they talk a good game, but as they say, talk is cheap.

But spending in Congress is even more expensive. So we'll see if this goes anywhere. But I can imagine, you know, moderates like Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, even some others would have deep reservations with this. They might not be able to get this through in the Senate, but we shall see. But had they failed in the House and again, all these one vote margins, it's fascinating. You know, they literally run the table. You know, I think we're in an era right now

where it is fair to say, and he does not get credit for this, frankly, and I'll say it right now, Mike Johnson is basically pulling the Nancy Pelosi strategy. She knew exactly where every vote was on things. And the difference here, of course, is maybe President Trump. I mean, you know, he has tremendous sway over House Republicans. He didn't weigh in on this per se. But Mike Johnson has a very difficult majority to work with. It's very small. And he continually

pulls rabbits out of hats. And that's what Nancy Pelosi was always able to do. She was always able to win by one vote, two votes. She knew exactly where all those votes were. And Mike Johnson, the level of difficulty might be a little bit higher, considering that narrow margin in the House for the Republicans. But dare I say, this has almost been Pelosi-esque. And I think with Johnson's situation too, Chad, is that he's in many ways given some pretty tough

challenges from President Trump. I mean, you know, getting as many spending cuts in the one big beautiful bill while getting all of those tax priorities in there for President Trump, which some of them are pretty costly when it comes to, you know, having that $4 trillion, um,

limit and then being able to do all that without losing people along the way. I mean, it was, it's a tremendous challenge that Johnson has there. And you could even say that's kind of similar with this first rescission package where, you know, when we were sitting up there in the balcony and some of the people I've been talking to in GOP circles, there's kind of been this question of, you know,

There probably were some lower-hanging fruits or some less politically concerning things that could have been pursued in this first rescission package, but they chose to go after things like NPR, PBS, and obviously some of those programs in USAID and 4NAID. It's popular. Absolutely.

Yeah. And and and and you remember Nicole Malley Otakus was telling us before the vote that she had Republican constituents who were saying, don't cut PBS. And I mean, there were other things like animal testing they could have gone after. But with this one, a little bit more challenging, but they did get it across the finish line.

Malia Takas voted no, ultimately. But here's the other thing. She had a little bit of problem with the way this was delivered. Now, we don't get these rescissions packages very often. But basically, she was saying, I don't like the idea that they are telling us what to cut. I mean, that is kind of the rescissions process. As I say, it's kind of a reverse appropriation, a reverse request from the administration. But that's why you can vote no if you don't like it. And that's what she did.

And if we could kind of move on, you know, we'll get to the one big beautiful bill and what this means in the future in a second. But I just think that what happened with Alex Padilla really took Capitol Hill by storm where you had Democrats trying to go into Leader Thune's office, then going into Speaker Johnson's office, heckling Johnson during a press gaggle and shouting matches happening on the floor. It was it.

It was pretty, pretty intense on on Friday. Yeah. Alex Padilla was all the way across the country in Los Angeles when this went down. But it resonated throughout the halls of Congress. And you talked about what happened with Mike Johnson. You know, he was coming out to talk about passing the spending cancellations bill and did not get a single question about that. He talked about that. And I jumped right in. And some of our other colleagues did.

And this is when some of these Democrats were walking across the Capitol to his office or to kind of barge into John Thune's office on the Senate side.

And you heard I can never figure out who it was, but these were definitely female Democratic members saying you're lying about what Padilla did and really upbraiding him. You know, Dan Goldman, a Republican from New York, yelled at him. Also, Sam Liccardo, a Democrat from California. That was pretty intense. And I said to Johnson, I said, do you care to respond to some of these folks? And he said, well, no, no, not really. And I and I said, well, wait a minute. You know, you know, you're the speaker of the House.

You're the constitutional officer for this branch of government. You know, are we across the Rubicon here where they are detaining briefly and handcuffing members, even though that's a senator? You know, I mean, Mike Johnson is in charge of the Congress. He's the only he's mentioned before the president, the speaker of the House is in the Constitution. And he thought that that Senator Padilla should be censured.

Now, we have to go way back to the last time they've done some formal discipline on a senator, and the House does not play in that. That is up to the Senate what they're going to do. But it was pretty clear that in the Senate, the Senate is a body of equals.

And the senators always feel, you know, they're, you know, I go but for the grace of God. And if something happens to one of them, regardless of what it is, they wonder if that could be visited back on them themselves. And so this is where some Republicans privately were a little bit shell-shocked.

at that, even if they politically kind of disagree with Padilla or maybe the tactics. This is where you had Democrats absolutely raging on the floor. John Thune said that he had spoken with Senator Padilla and also with Jennifer Hemingway, who is the Senate Sergeant at Arms, who is in charge of security. And keep in mind that we've had a couple of episodes now where you've had, you know, members of Congress surrounding immigration-related issues and ICE-related issues, okay?

You had it in New Jersey at the detention center in Newark where LaMonica McIver was arrested and charged eventually. And it's not lost on the Democrats and their left wing base that you have this with Senator Padilla and that with McIver and that they are both persons of color.

And Chad, can we expect what do you think the next moves are here with Alex Padilla? You know, Democrats are demanding an investigation into what happened. But, you know, with Republicans running the White House and Congress, it's unlikely that they're going to be given that request. Well, I think I think it's pretty clear that Senator Thune, to some degree, you know, I don't know that they they open a scroll up and sign it and have it notarized and say, here is our official investigation.

But John Thune said that he was, in fact, making phone calls and trying to inquire to get more about this. Senator Padilla and Kristi Noem did talk later. There is some question, and this is just not from Republicans, about the theatrical nature of this. And again, I want to be very careful. You know, Senator Padilla was in the room at the federal building to hear the press conference.

He did, you know, come up and was moving toward the front of the room where Noam was speaking, trying to ask his questions. If they didn't know who he was, even though he said he was Senator Padilla, you know, they pointed out and said, well, he didn't have his Senate pin on. Okay, that's fine. He says he did have a jacket on.

that said Senator Padilla, that might not count to formally identify somebody here. But I've never seen anything like this happen with a House member and certainly not a senator. That's why this is so dramatic. And we also see people pulled out of press conferences all the time. People disrupt things. And they may or may not arrest them later or just get them out. But

You know, it was perceived, at least by the DHS people, that there was a threat there. And that's why they briefly detained Senator Padilla. I think that that's why this rose to the fore. And there was video of this. And it was a little bit violent, whether or not he was in the riot. The video really, really got this, I think. Yeah, the video kind of tells the story there. And he did identify himself as Senator Padilla. I'm not sure that the ICE agents or the other federal officers there, that they would immediately recognize a

a Senate pen that gets you around here on Capitol Hill. You know, once in a blue moon, you know, you have a Capitol Police officer not recognize somebody and you have a senator pull out their actual ID out of the wallet or something like that. Or sometimes I'll be standing by the door and I'll vouch for them. That's happened before, too. I said, yes, he really is a senator.

I don't know that you would expect that in California necessarily. It's a little bit different here, but that's what was so shocking. So I don't think we've heard the last of this. The question is whether the public interprets this as theatrical, number one. And number two, the Democrats have been kind of searching for their mojo for quite a while now. And whether or not this is viewed and perceived by the public and Democrats are able to project this as a bridge too far by federal agents.

who are being accused by Democrats of going too far, picking up college students who are from abroad. This is what spurred all these protests and demonstrations and violence in Los Angeles to start with. And Senator Padilla was supposed to be playing first base at the congressional baseball game for the Democrats.

And we found out the morning of the game that he was not going to be there. He was going to go back to Los Angeles because of the crisis out there. And then you had some Republicans being critical of him not being in Washington doing his job.

Steve Scalise said, you know, he's not taking his job seriously. He should be here voting. John Barrasso, who is the majority whip, said that he was trying to create a spectacle. I said to Steve Scalise, I said, but if you had a national disaster in your home state or district, a hurricane or something coming, this is not a meteorological issue in California. It's a political one. You would go home. And I've seen Steve Scalise do that before. And I think that's what Senator Padilla was trying to do. And I don't know that this was thought out

that he was going to miss the baseball game, go home, stir up trouble at the press conference. I don't think that that was thought out. I think that he was back home to attend to what was going on with the riots and sending in the Marines and ICE and everything else. And then Noem was going to have her press conference. And he said, well, I'm in the building, in the federal building. I'm going to go up and take a listen. And then what happened happened.

Yeah, I think you're absolutely right. We have not heard the last of this whatsoever. But, you know, we do still have it. And going into this week, Chad, we were expecting it to be all about the one big, beautiful bill. And by Friday, it was barely even mentioned. But they have that 4th of July deadline coming up pretty soon. They're off next week. So this is going to be a very critical, you know, next couple of weeks if they want to get this thing across the finish line by July. The House is out, not the Senate. This is in the Senate's court right now. But the House is out.

The Senate should be out for Juneteenth later this week. But again, if they really feel they need to be in on that day, they'll be in. I was told several weeks ago that this coming week was when they were going to try to put the bill on the floor.

And if that's the case, then they would vote on that, have a voterama where they vote around the clock, probably a very lengthy one, I would think in this case, maybe not just your nine to 12 hour voterama, maybe something much, much longer, frankly. And then maybe kick back the changes, presuming they can pass it in the Senate, kick back the changes to the House and presuming that the House can stomach the changes from the Senate. And then, you know, you've got a big, beautiful bill that becomes the one big, beautiful law, presumably by the 4th of July.

I tend to handicap this in a way that I think that they probably get it through the Senate by the 4th of July.

I would be a little skeptical about the House because of the quick turnaround and how they have to massage that and all the changes, whether the deficit spending, whether they make more cuts or whether that's higher because they can't stomach those in the Senate, maybe changing or getting rid of SALT. We talked about Congressman Lallotta a few minutes ago. He said that the threshold established in the House in that bill to sign off on the state and local tax deduction SALT

$40,000. He said if it is $39,999, forget it. I'm voting no.

So they got to figure out a way to to get past that. Again, does Congressman Lillota have a nice conversation with the speaker again and explain why? You know, I've said this before. Here's the dirty little secret. If people like Lillota and Mike Lawler, who is a Republican from New York in a bluish district as well, they're on the record as voting for the SALT tax deduction and getting something substantial in the bill.

And they can point to that roll call vote in their ads in the fall of 2026. Let's just say hypothetically that they take that out. And there is no SALT tax deduction in the big beautiful bill because there's no appetite for that and no constituency in the Senate. Maybe they take that out. Well, the SALT deduction goes back to what it was pre-2017 at the end of the calendar year. So they're on the record of fighting for it. Plus, they get even a better deal if it's not in the package.

So maybe that's kind of the joke is baked into the mix here. I'm just going to throw that out there. I mean, I wonder if we're going to be talking about that come December, that that dynamic played out to the way we're speaking about it in June. But again, you know, let's see if Mike Johnson can pull some of that Pelosi magic and get it through the House of Representatives by the 4th of July once they pass the Senate.

A lot of moving parts there, but we got to get to your favorite topic, Chad, before we wrap up. And that was the congressional baseball game. You and Kevin Cork did a phenomenal job on commentary. Yet again, another win for Republicans, five in a row now. Yeah, five in a row for the Republicans. The idea that they just have a better baseball team.

The Democrats are definitely better. And I mentioned Senator Padilla. That might have been a bit of a blow to the Democrats. Linda Sanchez, the Democrat from California, manages the team. And Padilla, as I say, was supposed to start at first base. He was supposed to come in in relief. And she told me that he was really disappointed because he had really worked on his pitching and was much better throwing the ball as well as she has ever seen. So the Republicans, they have a murderer's row in the middle of their lineup.

Eric Schmidt, Republican senator from Missouri, August Pfluger, Republican from Texas, and also Greg Stubbe, who pitches and has a, if you watch his pitching, tremendous form, Tom Seaver-esque form and pretty good location and a little bit of movement on his pitches as well.

Probably one of the most improved players was Chris Deluzio, who's the Democrat from Pennsylvania who started for the Democrats and was pretty wild last year and thought that he was getting squeezed on some of the pitches. He had a few minutes of wildness here in this game as well, but overall he was much better. And this was a much better Democratic team. That 13-2 score does not really indicate how close the game was. It was 5-2 at one point until the Republicans started to tack on some runs late, got some runs late in the game.

The other thing that happened, and this could have changed the game. The Democrats in the first inning had ducks on the pond.

and there was a line shot hit down the third baseline. August Pfluger plays third. He made a Brooks Robinson-esque stab. Right at the line. Yes, right at the line. I mean, this thing was going to be fair. It was going down the line, probably extra bases. He picks up the ball, grabs it, and this was just not the best play in the Congressional baseball game. This is the best play I've seen this week. This is going to be on SportsCenter, as they say. Grabbed the ball.

chugged to third base, dove to get the force out at third. As I said, there were runners on first and second and saved the Democrats from having a big inning. That might have been the most pivotal moment in the game. And had the Democrats been able to tack on a couple of extra runs there, that might have been a very different contest. But nonetheless, the Republicans continue their winning streak. They have won five in a row.

And as you mentioned, August Pflueger, former Air Force Academy baseball player. I believe even Blake Moore, former college football player at Utah State, didn't even play. Yeah, he did come in to run. Yeah, Blake Moore, you know, he was supposed to be the starting center fielder. You know, and that's one of the other things with this here, Ryan, is that injuries and just not injuries, you know, on the diamond. Blake Moore won the high school Heisman Trophy and is one of the best athletes on the Republican side.

He played in the congressional soccer game. Yes, there is a congressional soccer game and a congressional flag football game and a congressional basketball game and a congressional hockey game. And then people wonder why they don't get things done here on Capitol Hill. Right. Anyway, he was playing goalie, dove to make a save.

injured his shoulder. Roger Williams told me, the Republican manager, Republican from Texas, he said he fined Moore $500. I think that was a joke. I'm not sure. And so I asked Moore a couple of days before the game, I said, can you play? Because he was the center fielder and he could really go get it in center field. And he said, no, I can't. He said, I can't lift my arm still up above my shoulder. He said, ironically, I can golf. He said, but I can't put away the dishes.

Which he said that goes over really well with his wife at home. Of course. But he came into the game to pinch run. And when the Republicans started to attack those runs on late, I saw him pinch running and he was kind of he was running gingerly. He was one of the guys that scored kind of, you know, cradling that that left arm as he came around third base and scored.

Well, Chad, a lot to cover this week. Congressional baseball game is behind us, so we're on to next year. And we know you'll be there, and you'll have all the details for us. But we appreciate you as always, Chad, and thank you. Thank you, Ryan. Ryan Reynolds here from Intmobile. With the price of just about everything going up, we thought we'd bring our prices down.

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The stage is now set in both New Jersey and Virginia for two key gubernatorial races that could set the tone for the 2026 midterms. In New Jersey, President Trump endorsed Republican Jack Cittarelli hopes the third time is the charm as he takes another shot at becoming governor just four years later.

Four years after coming within three points of a shocking upset over Governor Phil Murphy, Democrats are hoping to keep New Jersey blue by turning to Congresswoman Mikey Sherrill, the winner of a crowded primary. Voters in the Commonwealth of Virginia will also head to the polls this November, where Democrats are hoping to reclaim the governor's mansion after a disappointing win.

election night in 2017 when businessman Glenn Youngkin defeated former governor Terry McAuliffe. Youngkin's lieutenant governor Winsome Sears will go up against former House member Abigail Spanberger. RNC chairman Michael Whatley joined the Fox News Rundown this week to discuss these key races and which issues will play the biggest role.

Look, I think as we roll into New Jersey, we're very excited about the opportunity we have there. The people of New Jersey are ready for a change. What we've seen over the course of the last 20, 25 years with Democratic control is that taxes are too high.

Services are not what they need to be. And the people of New Jersey are ready for a change. We have a great opportunity coming out of this cycle in 2024 where President Trump brought us in a lot closer than we had been in the past within five points. We saw a governor's race four years ago, three and a half percent. So I think that we are definitely ready for a change in New Jersey. The people want to see a common sense agenda that's going to be brought to bear there.

What kind of data are you going to look at out of Tuesday knowing it's a primary? So what are you going to sort of be tracking out of that? Is it like what is the Latino vote doing? Yeah, we want to see basically what are the raw vote totals that are coming out, how many Republicans are turning out, how many people are voting in the Republican primary vote.

What is that enthusiasm gonna lead us to? As we go into this election cycle, to win in New Jersey, it's gonna take the same fundamentals that it takes in any battleground state. You have to have a really good candidate, run a really good race. You have to get out the vote and you have to protect the ballot. So we're going to be working with the New Jersey GOP and the candidates

to make sure that we have the grassroots programs in place and we have a statewide election integrity program that's going to be really focused on making it easy to vote and hard to cheat. There are other off-year elections, right? This year, Virginia's governor race has apparently no primary. They were canceled because Abigail Spanberger is the only Democrat and Winsome Earl Sears is the only Republican. She's the current lieutenant governor there.

what are you guys planning to do there? Um, for the rest of the year, if anything, to, to help out when some Sears, cause the, the polling at least initially has a Spanberger a little bit ahead. Yeah. Basically the, the, the same type of approach that we're going to be taking in New Jersey, which is really truly to work with the candidate and win some Sears. She's doing a great job and she's going to run a great race, work with the state party, work with the volunteers, make sure that we're getting out the vote and, uh, that we have the election integrity program, uh,

lined up and running in every one of the counties across the state. Virginia is a little bit of a different animal, right? It's purple-ish, but it was blue and then it went red. So is that a tricky state? Well, it's a very tricky state. I think it's a battleground state. You know, what Glenn Youngkin did in 2021 was show us a roadmap of what it takes for you to win in a state like Virginia. And he was such a trailblazer

by focusing on the issues that the voters cared about. And obviously in 2021, school closures coming out of COVID was a very hot topic and making sure that the schools were gonna be teaching the kids and allow the parents to say in the education,

Governor Youngkin was able to kind of capture that, but he also, you know, focused on the fact that we had had 12 years of Democratic control in Richmond and that taxes were getting to be too high and that the services that the state was providing the taxpayers were not what they needed to be. That is something that Winsome Sears is going to have to continue. She's going to be focused on, you know, what are the issues that the Virginia voters care about, putting solutions on the table and relentlessly campaigning for them.

We are also, sir, very soon going to have a mayoral primary in New York. I think Mayor Adams is running as an independent now. And it seems to be on the Democratic ticket between former Governor Cuomo and a Democratic socialist named Zoran Mamdani. We know Cuomo has his issues, right, his handling of COVID and the sexual harassment accusations. So what

What would it mean if Mamdani became the next mayor of New York? Well, I think it's very troubling right now. What you're seeing is every single candidate in the Democratic primary for mayor is a jailbreak to the left. They are doing everything they can to defend illegal immigrants. They're fighting harder for illegal immigrants than they are their own constituents. We're seeing example after example where they're running out on immigrants.

housing issues where they're running to the left on tax issues, where they're running to the left on every single issue. That's not what the people of New York want. What they want are solutions. What they want is a safe community. They want their kids to be educated. They want to be able to get a good job. They need the economy to be good. Uh,

And these are all things that the Democrats right now in their jailbreak to the left are just ignoring and posturing to really, truly be the most radical, progressive person that's going to come out of that primary. OK, let's go into the future and pretend it's mid-July. The big, beautiful bill is signed.

What are Republicans focused on moving forward ahead of next year's midterms? And how does it differ knowing historically that when a party's in power, things usually go the reverse direction in that first in that first midterm? Yeah, the midterm election cycles are going to be all about the agenda. Right. President Trump ran on a common sense pro-America agenda, which really is rebuild the economy, restore the southern border, make sure that America is strong and we're going to protect our kids and our communities.

And so our agenda is definitely wrapped up with the Big Beautiful Bill. We've got a lot of provisions in there that are going to help advance our economy, that are going to help build a wall and provide funding for ICE, going to make sure that we unleash American energy, which is absolutely critical. So there's a lot in the Big Beautiful Bill. We need to get that done. But then we also need to keep focusing on the fact that this agenda is bigger than just one bill.

We need to see the rescissions package that the president sent to Congress get passed so that we can cut down on spending. We need to make sure that we get grocery prices, gasoline prices, housing prices continue to track lower. We've seen very good positive indications in all of those indicators.

So far, you know, President Trump, under his economic stewardship since he took office, has created 700,000 jobs here in America. We need to do more and we need to do better. Real wages are going up. Inflation is going down. Those are very important. But for us in the midterm, this is all about promises made and promises kept. It sounds more policy than messaging.

Well, you got to message the delivery, right? I mean, you need to make sure that people understand that President Trump is keeping those promises. You need to help make sure that people understand it is not a coincidence. You know, elections have consequences. What we're seeing in California right now with the riots, what we're seeing across the country in Democratic cities is that Democratic leadership is failed leadership. Republicans are listening to the voters. They're understanding the issues they care about and putting solutions on the table.

We are far out from the terms, obviously, but given what you see in the Democratic Party right now, they're in fighting who their party stars are right now. What do you think at this stage of the game? I know it's still early, but what do you think it pretends for the for the GOP's fight next year?

Look, the Democrats right now, every single person who wants to be a leader in that party, whether it's Jasmine Crockett or it's AOC or it's Bernie Sanders, what they want is to double down on the same failed policies that they lost on in 2024. You know, at its core, 2024 was a repudiation of the Democrats' open border initiative.

inflationary spending, weak America agenda. And it was really ushering in President Trump and a common sense agenda. Right now, the Democrats are doing everything they can to double down on the same failed policies. You know, you've got Kamala Harris out there saying, if only I'd been on the ticket longer, then we could have won. Tim Waltz saying, only if I had been more, uh,

aggressive in terms of pursuing this campaign agenda, then we would have had a chance. The fact is the American people rejected that agenda. They knew it and they don't want it. They don't want it today. And so really, truly, as we look at this agenda right now, there's a huge, big, bright line between the Republicans

and the Democrats, I feel pretty good that as long as the Republicans continue to deliver every single day, we're gonna be in a position, have an opportunity to expand our majorities in the House and the Senate.

After the dust up between President Trump and Elon Musk, the president said if Elon funds Democratic candidates who vote against the big, beautiful bill, and we all know how Elon feels about the big, beautiful bill, then he'll have to deal with the consequences. We then saw Elon Musk retweet and positively comment on Vice President Vance's posts as well as President Trump's posts. Do you think that's a threat? Do you think Elon Musk funding

Democratic candidates is a real possibility. Look, I'm disappointed that we have seen Elon Musk taking the shots at the president that he has. Uh, what we need to stay focused on right now is getting this agenda passed. This is a pro America agenda that the president is pushing every single day. His entire cabinet is pushing every single day. Uh, we need to get the big, beautiful bill done. Uh,

Elon Musk made a lot of great contributions to the campaign and to the transition period and getting Doge set up. And we're grateful for those efforts. But right now, we have one president. We have one Republican Party. We have one agenda. And we're working every single day to implement that agenda. As you watch what's happening in California and the riots against immigration officials,

Just just your your brief thoughts about how the politics around this issue have changed from 2017, 2018 and Trump 1.0 versus now. Look, this is the direct result of the Democrats policies.

on illegal immigration. The fact is Joe Biden rolled out the red carpet and ushered in 15 to 20 million illegal aliens into the United States. They don't want to leave. And what we're seeing right now is Democrat leaders in California, whether it's Gavin Newsom or it's Mayor Bass,

are fighting harder for those illegal immigrants than they are for their own constituents, than the victims of the crimes that are being perpetrated by violent criminal illegal aliens. And basically what they're saying is, if you don't come in and arrest these people, if you don't deport them, then we will not riot. That is not an equation that is going to work. President Trump is very committed, and the American people voted for the deportation of violent criminal illegal aliens, shutting down that border,

and making sure that we're not going to have 15 to 20 million illegal aliens in the United States that should not be here. Republican Party Chairman Michael Watley, thank you so much for joining us. Absolutely. It's great to be with you. You may get a little excited when you shop at Burlington. What a low price! Did you see that? They have my family like a whole new world. I can buy two! I'm saving so much!

Burlington saves you up to 60% off other retailers' prices every day. Will it be the low prices or the great brands? Burlington. Deals. Brands. Wow. I told you so. Styles and selections vary by store.

That'll do it for this edition of the Fox News Rundown from Washington. Tomorrow, we speak with the man tasked with keeping Republicans in control of the House, National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Richard Hudson, about passing the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. For now, I'm Ryan Schmelz. Thank you for joining us on the Fox News Rundown from Washington.

Stay up to date by subscribing to this podcast at foxnewspodcasts.com. Listen ad-free on Fox News Podcasts Plus on Apple Podcasts. And Prime members can listen to the show ad-free on Amazon Music. And for up-to-the-minute news, go to foxnews.com.

Hey, I'm Trey Gowdy, host of the Trey Gowdy Podcast. I hope you will join me every Tuesday and Thursday as we navigate life together and hopefully find ourselves a little bit better on the other side. Listen and follow now at foxnewspodcast.com.