Democratic Party Divides & Trump Targets Houthis | 3.17.25

Democrats openly revolt against their party leadership after they joined the GOP in keeping

the government funded. The fact that the leader said one thing and then within 24 hours did an

about face, it just looked pathetic. What does this mean for the future of the Democratic Party?

I'm Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Monday, March 17th, and this is Morning Wire.
The U.S. military strikes several Houthi military targets in Yemen as Trump's foreign policy makes waves around the world.
By the way, to the Houthis, this isn't a one-night thing. This will continue until you say we're done shooting at ships, we're done shooting at assets.
And thanks to SpaceX, two astronauts stranded aboard the International Space Station for months are finally coming home. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.
Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
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Over the weekend, Congress narrowly avoided a government shutdown after a stunning turn that saw Democrat leaders give in to Republican demands. Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips is here to break down the fallout from the very public power struggle and what it means for the future of the Democratic Party.
Hey, Cabot. So a wild weekend in Washington.
Democrats really reeling here. Get us up to speed.
Yeah, the lights are still on in Washington as the shutdown was avoided, but not without plenty of drama and infighting. So you'll remember that on Friday, Republicans were trying to push their seven-month funding stopgap through the Senate.
They had until midnight, but could only win passage if eight Democrats got on board. Pennsylvania's John Fetterman was the first, and then Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who had been slamming that deal all month, reversed course and called on his members to vote yes.
And ultimately, seven other Democrats did join him, including New York's Kristen Gillibrand, Dick Durbin from Illinois, and Michigan's Gary Peters. A very dramatic reversal for Schumer and others.
What changed their mind? Well, there was a lot at play. First, if the measure had failed, Democrats would have gotten the lion's share of the blame for the shutdown, something even their party leaders acknowledged behind closed doors.
Schumer and the others who voted yes argued that during a potential shutdown, President Trump would be given even more authority to slash federal spending and potentially federal workers. Here's Schumer making that case from the Senate floor.
A shutdown will allow Doge to shift into overdrive. It would give Donald Trump and Doge the keys to the city, state, and country.
But the bottom line is, this was a substantial victory for Republicans and President Trump. It showed the GOP is almost totally aligned in pushing through Trump's agenda.
And perhaps more importantly, it highlighted some of the major fractures within the Democratic Party, specifically with regard to how they're going to respond to the next four years under Trump. Yeah, the question for Democrats.
Now, the fallout from this has been rather remarkable. Tell us about that, what we've seen from Democrats in the wake of this spending bill saga.
Yeah, let's just say Chuck Schumer is not a very popular man on the left right now. He's had an iron grip on the chamber for years.
And in the past, if Democrats were mad at him, they mostly kept it to themselves, fearing recriminations. But this weekend was very different.
Democrats in both chambers publicly slammed him and the other Democrats who got on board with him. Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, for example, said Schumer's effort, quote, only makes matters worse.

And in perhaps the most remarkable example, Schumer's counterpart in the House,

Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, all but threw Schumer under the bus,

issuing a statement saying, quote,

House Democrats will not be complicit.

We remain strongly opposed to the partisan spending bill.

And most telling, Jeffries went on to refuse comment multiple times when asked if he was confident in Schumer's ability to lead.

It's time for new leadership in the Senate.

Next question.

Have you lost confidence in him, the fact that you guys see this so differently?

Next question.

And for her part, Congressman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called Schumer's move a, quote, tremendous mistake and almost unthinkable.

I think there is a deep sense of outrage and betrayal. And this is not just about progressive Democrats.
This is across the board, the entire party. It is a huge slap in the face.
Now, according to numerous reports, there are now a number of Democrats on the Hill pushing behind the scenes for Schumer to be primaried. And some Democrats have reportedly been urging Ocasio-Cortez to make a run for Schumer's seat in 2028.
One anonymous senator told CNN their colleagues are, quote, so mad they're ready to write checks for AOC. So AOC benefiting from this blow up.
Yeah, it seems like it. Now, this Democratic infighting comes as new polling shows the party is really less popular than ever.
Where do those numbers sit now? Right, a new poll from CNN this weekend found that just 29% of Americans have a favorable view of the Democratic Party. That is the lowest number since the poll's inception back in 1992.
Wow. And a separate finding from NBC showed things were even worse, with just 27% approving.
And look, there seem to be two main dilemmas facing the party right now. First, there isn't a clear heir apparent or standard bearer for the left.
CNN asked who voters view as the leader of the party, and not a single Democrat garnered more than 10% of the vote. And more broadly, there isn't a clear strategy for dealing with Trump.
As evidenced by this weekend's dust-up, the party's liberal base clearly wants their lawmakers to fight Trump at all costs, even if it means shutting down the government. But that strategy is far less popular with moderates and independents.
So there's just no clear fix for the Democratic Party, which is still searching for a message and a messenger. They're really a serious dilemma for the Democrats at this point.
Kevin, thanks so much for reporting. Shopify.com slash morningwire.
From Yemen to Ukraine, it was a big weekend for the Trump administration's policies overseas. Here with the foreign policy latest is Daily Wire deputy managing editor Tim Rice.
A. Tim, so lots to get to that took place over the last 72 hours or so, including these strikes in Yemen.
Catch us up here. Yeah, good morning, John.
We've got a pretty full plate for a Monday morning. Let's start with probably the biggest news of the weekend.
President Trump's announcement that the United States has launched a strike on Iran-backed Houthi terrorists in Yemen, killing at least 19. The U.S.
military attacked by air and sea, destroying missiles, drones, and missile defense systems. The immediate purpose of the attack was to open the shipping lanes in the Red Sea, which the Houthis have obstructed for months now.
But the strike was also clearly meant to send a signal to Iran that the Trump administration is taking a more aggressive approach to the region. Trump named the Houthis a foreign terrorist organization at the end of his first term, a distinction Joe Biden later reversed.
Trump touched on this changing dynamic on Saturday, saying that Biden's attempt to clear the Red Sea was pathetically weak, so the unrestrained Houthis just kept going. The president also issued a warning to Iran, saying support for the Houthi terrorists must end immediately.

And so a pretty stark warning from Trump.

And again, very different rhetoric than we heard from the Biden administration.

What can we expect this administration to do in the coming weeks?

Well, Trump explicitly said that American attacks on the Houthis would continue

and increase in severity if the terror group continued to, quote,

threaten the American people, their president,

who has received one of the largest mandates in presidential history

or worldwide shipping lanes.

I'm sorry. if the terror group continued to, quote, threaten the American people, their president, who has received one of the largest mandates in presidential history or worldwide shipping lanes.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth echoed Trump's warning on Sunday, telling the Houthis that the United States assault would be unrelenting until the group laid down its arms. And Hegseth also issued a warning to Iran during an interview with Fox News' Maria Bartiromo.
They will not be allowed to have a nuclear weapon. We hope they do so.
They would give it up peaceably through negotiations. The president has laid out the trajectory for that because the alternative doesn't look good for anybody.
All right, switching gears to Ukraine. We're coming off a pretty big week with the Ukrainians agreeing to a temporary ceasefire.
What's the latest on that front? Yeah, Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are expected to speak this week for the second time since Trump took office in January. As you mentioned, this is a pretty high-stakes call because last week Ukraine agreed to a temporary ceasefire, and that ceasefire will take effect once Putin also agrees.
But as always, we won't know what Putin's going to do until after he does it. However, things seem to be moving in a positive direction.
Steve Witkoff, the U.S. special envoy, met with Putin late last week and told CNN's Jake Tapper that the meeting was positive and solutions-based.
We had some really positive results coming out of Saudi Arabia. I describe my conversation with President Putin as equally positive.
So we've narrowed the differences between them. And now we're sitting at the table.
I was with the president all day yesterday. I'll be with him today.
We're sitting with him discussing how to narrow it even further. That's how I would describe it.
So it sounds like some positive momentum going into this week's meeting between Trump and Putin. Last question before we let you go.
We reported on the announcement Friday that the last U.S. citizen held hostage by Hamas may be released.
What's the latest there? Right. There's still a lot going on behind the scenes and nothing is solid.
But as we reported, Hamas agreed to release Eden Alexander, a 21-year-old Israeli American who spent most of his life in New Jersey. The terror group also said it would release the bodies of four other Americans who died in captivity.

Alexander's release is welcome news, of course,

but it's being met with a lot of skepticism from the United States.

This is part of ongoing talks about a bridge

to the next phase of the ceasefire in Gaza.

And the key here is that the U.S. says Hamas

is trying to tie these promises

to a list of unreasonable demands.

So the whole situation remains very tenuous.

All right, well, let's hope there's more progress in the days to come. Tim, thanks so much for reporting.
You bet. A SpaceX capsule docked at the International Space Station early Sunday morning.
The ship took off from Florida on Friday on a mission to relieve two American astronauts who have been stuck in orbit for nine months. Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce is here to tell us about that SpaceX mission.
So Tim, a major development here. We've been tracking this for nine months.
What happened over the weekend? So the SpaceX mission finally took off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Friday after it was delayed from its original launch date in February. A mixed crew from the U.S., Japan, and Russia rode on the SpaceX Crew-10 Dragon capsule up into orbit and docked on the International Space Station early Sunday morning Eastern Standard Time.
Afterward, the mission's commander, Anne McLean, had this to say in an interview with Sky News. Crew-10 has had a great journey up here, about 28 hours to get back up to the space station, and I cannot tell you the immense joy of our crew when we looked out the window and we saw the space station for the first time.
You can hardly even put it into words. The ride up on the Falcon 9 orbiting the Earth for the last couple of days, it's been absolutely incredible.
And it is something that none of us could do by ourselves. This mission was pushed by President Trump to bring home two American astronauts that have been stuck on the space station for nine months.
But the mission also had another purpose, too, to rotate McLean and her three astronauts into shifts on the ISS. Now, can you just remind listeners who these astronauts are and why they were left on the ISS to begin with? Those astronauts are Butch Wilmore and Suny Williams.
They docked at the ISS in June of last year and were only supposed to be in the space station for eight days. They were testing a new space capsule from Boeing, the Starliner.
But the Starliner had some technical problems and NASA returned it to Earth empty in September over what the space agency said were unacceptable risks to the astronauts. Boeing maintained that the craft was safe and could have returned Wilmore and Williams to Earth, but NASA had the final call.
During their extended stay on the ISS, Wilmore and Williams fell in with other crews that arrived and ran tests and experiments. It also allowed Williams to set a new record for most time spent spacewalking by a woman, 62 hours and six minutes.
There was some concern about Suni Williams' health. People online were quick to comment on how she appeared to be losing weight in recent months.
Williams, though, says she weighs the same today as she did when she left Earth and that fluid shifting around in zero gravity can contribute to slight changes in appearance. So those two have another couple of days on the ISS while they teach crew 10 their roles, and then they'll be leaving on the Dragon capsule with two other astronauts.
So eight days to nine months is a big gap.

Why did it take so long?

Well, according to President Trump, Wilmore and Williams were effectively abandoned by

former President Biden.

Here's Trump earlier this month.

We love you and we're coming up to get you and you shouldn't have been up there so long.

The most incompetent president in our history has allowed that to happen to you.

But this president won't let it happen. We're going to get them out.
We're coming up to get you. Now, NASA has pushed back and said the astronauts weren't stranded and that nine months on the space station isn't unprecedented by any stretch.
Astronauts have previously stayed on the ISS for more than a year. And Wilmore and Williams have themselves always had positive things to say about their stay.

But regardless, they're probably very happy to finally be returning home.

Right. And I'm sure their families will be very happy to see them safe at home.

Tim, thanks for reporting.

Thanks for having me.

Thanks for waking up with us.

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