On Monday, both NBC's Today and CBS This Morning used a terrorist threat against the Mall of America in Minneapolis to hit the Republican Congress over the Department of Homeland Security funding fight.
On Today, White House correspondent Kristen Welker concluded her report on the security concerns by declaring: "Meanwhile, the clock is ticking with Congress locked in a bitter battle over how to fund DHS. If Congress can't resolve its differences by Friday, the agency that oversees much of the nation's security operations will run out of money."
Minutes later, news anchor Natalie Morales picked up on the topic by touting administration talking points: "Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson laid out the implications of a looming shutdown....30,000 would be furloughed if funding runs out by this week. The rest would be required to show up without pay."
On This Morning, correspondent Jeff Pegues, like Welker, wrapped up a segment on the mall threat by highlighting the DHS funding debate:
What is complicating things is that Johnson's agency, the Department of Homeland Security, is set to run out of money. There is a battle in Congress over the President's recent immigration actions and DHS funding is in the cross hairs....Funding for DHS runs out midnight Friday and as of now it's unclear how the Republican-led Congress will break the impasse.
While Secretary Johnson appeared on all of the political talk shows Sunday morning, only Fox News Sunday fill-in anchor John Roberts pressed him on Senate Democrats blocking debate of the House bill that would fund Homeland Security while preventing funding to implement President Obama's executive action on illegal immigration:
ROBERTS: All of this is tied to your budget, which runs out on February the 27th. Why are Democrats blocking debate in the Senate on the Senate bill?
JOHNSON: Well, Democrats are not blocking debate.
ROBERTS: They are.
JOHNSON: What is happening is that some in Congress-
ROBERTS: They're – they're filibustering to block debate.
JOHNSON: Hold on. What is – what is happening is that some in Congress want to tie de-funding our executive actions to my entire Homeland Security budget.
ROBERTS: Yeah, understood.
JOHNSON: Hold on-
ROBERTS: But why can't Democrats just introduce an amendment to strip that part from the bill and undertake at least a debate in the Senate as opposed to stone-walling?
NBC and CBS failed to mention that detail in their Monday reports.
