On PBS NewsHour, Congressional Correspondent Lisa Desjardins dropped a revealing insight into the ongoing DHS shutdown standoff, and it cuts against conventional wisdom. Long lines, missed flights, and growing frustration at airports across the country would seem like the kind of pressure that forces lawmakers to act. Instead, Desjardins says it’s doing the opposite.
Behind the scenes, both parties are digging in.
Desjardins explained that Democratic sources are closely watching new polling, including data from Quinnipiac, showing that more Americans are blaming Republicans for the airport disruptions than Democrats. That’s a striking twist, given the typical political pattern. Historically, the party seen as triggering a shutdown takes the political hit. In this case, Desjardins noted, Democrats were the ones who “sparked it.”
But the blame game isn’t following the usual script.
READ NOW: PBS’s Desjardins: Dems Emboldened by GOP Getting Blame for DHS Shutdown They Started — On Monday’s “PBS NewsHour,” Congressional Correspondent Lisa Desjardins said that the airport lines “are actually making it more difficult to reach…https://t.co/n9IYkpHXtQ
— Top News by CPAC (@TopNewsbyCPAC) March 24, 2026
Democrats are leaning into the numbers, arguing they’ve already offered to fund TSA operations and positioning Republicans as the obstacle. That messaging, combined with favorable polling, is reducing the urgency on their side to compromise.
At the same time, President Donald Trump is charting a very different course — one that avoids negotiation altogether. Rather than working toward a bipartisan deal, Trump is reportedly focused on a workaround: deploying ICE agents to help manage airport security and ease the backlog.
That approach is only hardening positions.
Instead of creating a path forward, the competing strategies are widening the divide. Democrats see political advantage in holding firm, backed by polling that suggests the public is on their side. Trump, meanwhile, is signaling that operational fixes — not legislative concessions — are the priority.
The result is a standoff where the visible pain felt by travelers isn’t translating into political pressure to act. If anything, it’s reinforcing each side’s existing strategy.
