Since the killing of Renée Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minnesota, President Donald Trump and his administration are feeling the pressure — not only from Democrats, but also from members of their own party. Some congressional Republicans have been critical of the administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement tactics and are worried about consequences for the midterms.

“The more the image is out there that President Trump is pushing things very far … [and] is responsible for chaos,” senior national politics reporter Naftali Bendavid says, “the easier it is for Democrats to make the case that they are needed, if nothing else, to put some guardrails up.”

Naftali spoke on this week’s episode of the “Post Reports” politics roundtable, alongside host Colby Itkowitz and Dan Merica, co-anchor of the politics newsletter The Early Brief. They discussed how Democrats are using the threat of a government shutdown as leverage to demand stronger reforms of the Department of Homeland Security.

Colby, Naftali and Dan also reflected on the attack against Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) at a recent town hall.

“We've seen people lose their lives in political violence moments last year,” Merica says, ”and you have to worry that it could happen again this year.”

Today’s show was produced by Thomas Lu and Josh Carroll. It was edited by Martine Powers and mixed by Sean Carter.

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Is Minneapolis a turning point in Trump's presidency?

Post Reports