from WNYC studios. I'm Brian Lehrer. This is my daily politics podcast. It's Friday,

March 13th. Here's how weird and stuck a moment this is right now in Congress.

Even after three presumed terrorist attacks

in the last week in New York, in Detroit, in Northrop, Virginia, Democrats can't agree on a way

to reopen the Department of Homeland Security. I should say Democrats and Republicans,

I meant to say, can't agree on a way to reopen the Department of Homeland

Security. The issue remains rules of engagement for ICE after its own deadly behavior in

Minneapolis and disruption of so many families' lives nationwide. No body cameras, no face masks,

no deal. President Trump is demanding that his election

rules bill, proof of citizenship to register, government ID to vote, other things, gets acted on

before anything else except Homeland Security funding. He even wants Republicans to consider what's

known as the nuclear option in Congress,

abolishing the filibuster so the voting bill can pass the Senate with 51 votes instead of 60.

Of course, with actual voter fraud vanishingly rare in this country,

the rules would mostly create paperwork barriers for people who are perfectly

eligible to cast ballots. Maybe Trump is so focused on making it harder for people to vote

because he and his Iran war are so unpopular as we look at the polls and head toward the midterm

elections. The president who ran on lowering gasoline prices and boasted about doing so in his

State of the Union address is even trying to spin the now soaring gasoline prices from the war as a

good thing. Here's 10 seconds from the State of the Union address on what he had been saying.

Under my predecessor, it was quite honestly a disaster.

It is now below $2.30 a gallon in most states.

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