The immigration divides

The Playbook Podcast

POLITICO

News, Daily News, Politics, Government

3.9 • 699 Ratings

🗓️ 28 January 2026

⏱️ 15 minutes

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Summary

Republicans and Democrats are searching for the right message on immigration as the fallout from the most recent fatal shooting in Minneapolis continues reverberating across America. Republicans are trying to toe the line between President Donald Trump’s unprecedented immigration crackdown, while Democrats are debating whether to shut the government down amid the furor. Playbook’s Jack Blanchard and White House reporter Megan Messerly break down how each party is approaching the issue and what it means for the weeks and months ahead.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Medicare Advantage provides better health care at lower overall costs than fee-for-service Medicare,
0:05.6	along with important extra benefits and a cap on expenses, saving seniors $3,400 a year.
0:11.8	More than 35 million seniors and people with disabilities choose Medicare Advantage.
0:16.4	They are counting on policymakers to keep the bipartisan commitment to protect and strengthen it.
0:21.7	Learn more at a-h-i-p.org.
0:30.3	Today on the Playbook podcast, Republicans in disarray on immigration.
0:36.0	How will the Democrats respond? Marco Rubio's in the Senate to be
0:39.8	grilled on Trump's foreign policy. Good luck with that. And Fed Chair Jay Powell gives his first
0:45.6	press conference of the year, which should be well worth watching. Hello, I'm Jack Blanchard.
0:51.6	And I'm Megan Messerly. It's Wednesday, January 28th. Megan, you're back. Are you snowed in? I'm back. I'm snowed. I did some shoveling today. It's, yeah, but I have a lot more to do. Well, thank you very much for joining us. We need to talk about immigration. We've been talking about it every day since the weekend, of course,
1:11.5	and it really feels like there is infighting in the White House. The polling is terrible. They can't
1:16.1	turn the page on it. Republicans calling for the DHS secretary to go. The PR is really bad.
1:22.0	Maga World's not happy. Are you surprised why this is panned out? Yeah, I mean, I think I've learned
1:27.4	not to be surprised by anything in this presidency, but at the same time, I that why this is pandemic? Yeah, I mean, I think I've learned not to be surprised by
1:28.3	anything in this presidency, but at the same time, I mean, this is an issue that Republicans
1:32.9	feel strong on, right? Like, historically, we look at numbers. You look at the idea of
1:39.0	border security and removing folks who are in the country illegally who have committed crimes.
1:45.5	Like those are popular things. And this is what Republicans typically like to run on. And this is
1:50.0	kind of where the president was messaging. The White House was messaging all of last year.
1:55.9	But then obviously where we have been this month with the events in Minnesota. I mean, it really has put
2:04.0	the White House on the back foot, really, to say the least. And so it is sort of an unusual
2:09.6	position, I think, for the president to be in. He talked a little bit about immigration. I'm thinking
	...

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