DHS Funding, Midterm Election (In)Security, Epstein

The Politics Guys

Michael Baranowski

News, Politics

4.4 • 783 Ratings

🗓️ 7 February 2026

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this weekend episode, Trey and Mike discuss the recent government shutdown and budget negotiations, focusing on the implications of Democratic proposals regarding ICE and law enforcement. Mike argues that Democrats have a fine opening bid, but their list is not going to get met. Trey agrees, but they disagree deeply over what ought to be implemented. Trey is firmly for the unmasking of ICE agents along with true warrants. Mike believes the dangers to ICE agents outweigh libertarian and liberal ideals. Next, they dive into so-called midterm election integrity with a focus on the Save America Act and the Make Elections Great Again (MEGA) Act. Here, Trey is more sympathetic to compromise and the need for ID’s in elections, but Mike worries that ICE agents even being threatened will decrease voter turnout. Trey counters that if that is the case, then it is time to push for more ICE reform. They end the show discussing the Epstein-related document dump, the remaining redactions, and the fundamental problem of elite accountability. The Politics Guys on Facebook | X Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. You can support us or change your level of support at patreon.com/politicsguys or politicsguys.com/support. On Venmo, we’re @PoliticsGuys. The Politics Guys is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Atheists, agnostics, long-haired, wettos, short-haired widows, vandals, vandal, Lugner. Love, the government, hug the government, love, the government, love the government, love. Welcome to the politics, guys. I'm Trey Orndorff, a political scientist at Oklahoma Christian University, and I'm joined by Michael Berenowski, a professor of political science. Mike, welcome to the show.
0:22.7	It's always great to do the show with you, Trey. I'm looking forward to it.
0:26.2	Yeah, it's been a lot of fun. We've had a chance to do a few more shows together, which I think that listeners like. And matter of fact, there's one listener in particular I'd like to reach out to. He is a new Patreon supporter,
0:39.4	and his name is Anthony. So Anthony, thank you so much for being a supporter of the politics, guys.
0:45.1	You make this place happen. And you can be like Anthony, too, by heading to Patreon right now.
0:51.0	Dot com slash politics guys. If you want to become a supporter of the show and get
0:54.4	things like the ad-free version of this show. But we've got things to get to, Mike. Oh,
1:00.4	Mike, there's so many things. And we thought we were going to start because this, I think,
1:04.7	has really been the biggest issue, has been what's been happening in the House and the
1:08.4	Senate over funding. This week, the House
1:11.8	finally passed the Senate amended version of the budget, ending a brief partial government shutdown
1:17.1	that began on January 30 when the Senate removed the Department of Homeland Security or DHS
1:22.1	from that package. Now, this gave the House and the Senate longer to negotiate on what to do over border enforcement.
1:29.3	So right now, DHS is operating under its two-week continuing resolution, which I think
1:35.1	everybody expects to expire at the end of next week.
1:39.8	Now, as of this weekend, both parties are expecting just what I said, that DHS funding is going to lapse.
1:46.6	Why?
1:47.1	Here's what's going on.
1:48.5	Democrats have come out for restrictions on immigration and custom enforcement or ICE and on custom and border patrol or CBP.
1:56.6	Now, on Wednesday, this week, Democratic leadership unveiled a formal 10-point plan to, quote, ran in ice, end quote.
2:05.2	It includes a number of items such as no masks requiring ID for officers, more targeted enforcement, and body cameras, and body camera data management.
2:15.7	Republicans have called the proposed reforms, quote, a ridiculous
	...

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