The Daily Signal - Major Democrat Infighting, Legal Battle Smorgasbord, Expected Riots in Chicago | Oct. 17, 2025

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Starting point is 00:00:25 We'd love to talk, business. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer are in crisis as they lose the support of their own caucuses. And we speak with two of the three foremost riot reporters on the ground in Chicago. I'm Tony Kennett, host of the Daily Signals Tony Kenned cast, syndicated nationally at 7 p.m. Eastern. It is Friday, October 17, 2025. This is the Daily Signals, top news in 10. Amid the shutdown, Democrat leadership in Congress is going through a rather rough time. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has been humiliated multiple times in the last couple of days, not by his own statements, but by the reactions of their own parties. Here's Representative Alexandra

Starting point is 00:01:15 Acosio Cortez of New York and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont on a CNN town hall. But are you saying that Senator Schumer should not be worried about a primary challenge from you? I mean, no. Let me jump in on this one. This is what we're talking about. That's exactly what we're talking. country that is falling apart. We had a house housing crisis, a health care crisis, an education crisis, massive income and wealth and equality, a corrupt campaign

Starting point is 00:01:44 finances them, and the media says, oh, you're going to run what you're going to run for? Nobody cares. Nobody cares. There's the House Speaker and President Trump and the Vice President saying it. Right. Pardon? Of course, they're saying it to deflect attention away from the real issues. Exactly. And here will tell you what the real issue is.

Starting point is 00:01:59 But if CNN talks about it. We're living in the richest country in the history of the world, right? All right. You tell me why we're the only nation not to guarantee health care at all people. The only nation that to guarantee paid family and medical leave. Why we have a $7.25 at our minimum wage. Why we have 800,000 people sleeping out on the street. Why we have a president who denies the reality of climate change. Why we have oligarchs on top who have more and more power every day. Let's talk about that issue, not her own political future. We sat down with Daily Signal president Rob Bluey to discuss a new poll showing a major nightmare for the House Minority Leader.

Starting point is 00:02:39 I have no idea how Western and upstate New Yorkers deal with the rest of the state's shenanigans. AOC and Bernie last night on CNN, the town hall was a, I made the joke this morning. It was like watching the Harlem Globetrotters lose to the Washington generals. That was how it should have been a slam dunk form. It was terrible. They freaked out over a question about Chuck Schumer being primaried by AOC. How are New Yorkers taking that whole possible Senate primary situation? Because that's obviously a bigger swath of the state, the entire state. Well, my limited interactions that I had with individuals and talking to people on the ground in

Starting point is 00:03:20 upstate New York, both the Utica area and Rochester, is that there's dissatisfaction with Chuck Schumer. They are strongly in favor, I think, of term limits and putting an end. to Chuck Schumer's time. He spent most of his career, obviously, serving in Congress, first in the House and then in the Senate, and now is the Democrat leader. So deep dissatisfaction with his leadership, I think particularly over this government shutdown, which a lot of people just don't understand what the Schumer strategy is here. It doesn't make any sense. Not only... There's a strategy? Maybe not. But I'd say the second thing is they're just focused on issues

Starting point is 00:03:55 that are completely misaligned with where the voters, at least in upstate New York are. For instance, you know, I was talking to a friend who, you know, is no huge fan of President Trump, who was saying that if cities like Rochester and Syracuse, you know, were a little bit larger, they'd be candidates to get the National Guard, given some of the crime issues that they're experiencing. And those are those issues that I think the bread and butter issues that Donald Trump tapped into in the 2024 election that voters care about. The Democrats, even to this day, are ignoring. And so when you hear somebody like a Hakeem Jeffries or Chuck Schumer, both of whom are from New York, talk about why they're in politics today and that sole reason

Starting point is 00:04:36 seems to be to oppose Donald Trump. I think it falls flat with a lot of voters. Well, I'll tell you what never falls flat with voters since you mentioned Akeem Jeffries, dropping fat beats and good rhymes. And Akeem Jeffery's latest strategy, I guess we're calling it, is to get out, you know, a couple of limericks. House Republicans shut the government down. Then they ran out of town.

Starting point is 00:05:00 And for the last three weeks, they're nowhere to be found. It's really weird to watch him try to speak at all. It's like William Shatner on muscle relaxers. But anyway, aside from the jokes, Hakeem is, according to a new Axios article, and I had to check this by Andrew Salender, their Congress guy. Axiose surveyed Democrats running for House across the country. 113 replied,

Starting point is 00:05:26 31 said they would definitely or likely vote for Jeffreys as speaker or leader. I didn't realize that's definitely or likely, just 31. 57 were non-committal. 25 said no or likely no. Oh, my gosh. I thought about a crisis in leadership. Oh, absolutely. I mean, he has completely disappointed not only the base, but I think even some of the

Starting point is 00:05:50 moderates in his own party. And you played the great clip on this morning's top news. and 10 for the Daily Signal from Harry Enton at CNN talking about how the Democrats should be in a very strong position today. If you look historically where the incumbent party is and the generic ballot and the Democrats are just struggling to connect. And I think you put that the blame squarely on the two most prominent leaders in the party right now. That is Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries. And Hakeem Jeffries, particularly in the House, if he can't even get the candidates who are running for the House of Representatives to back him. Yeah, he's in trouble. And we all know how petty the DNC is.

Starting point is 00:06:32 Ken Martin has no leadership whatsoever. Essentially, you've got Ken Martin trying to do backseat driving. Obama's panicking on podcasts. AOC and Bernie Sanders are flapping their hands like Gavin Newsom with too much coffee on national television. And amid all of this, I'm very smug. Because I remember when guys like Nate Silver, pretty good pollster, was out saying, wow, things are looking really good for the Democrats. And I may have been, you may have been in an interview on this show, one of the ones to say, hey, they're only up in the generic ballot by like one or two points. The opposition party in the first year of an administration is supposed to be up 10, 12, 15 points. They are in crisis mode. And then you bring in the redistricting efforts. I mean,

Starting point is 00:07:18 you don't even need Katanji Brown Jackson to call all black people disabled for this to be a communications and political crisis for the Democrats, what do we expect out of that SCOTUS ruling? Have you heard anything kind of on the ground in D.C.? Well, certainly, it looks favorable that the Voting Rights Act will see some major changes, which could probably yield Republicans even more seats in Congress ahead of the 2026 midterms. And so, yes, I do think that ultimately it's hard to predict any Supreme Court case, but based on the line of questioning, certainly didn't not go well for for those who were advocating for its, uh,

Starting point is 00:07:58 its, continuation. I will, I will say this point about a lot can change, uh, over the course of the next year. Um, I,

Starting point is 00:08:06 I think it's ultimately going to come down to how people view their personal finances. And again, some of those, those issues that we know Donald Trump did a much more effective job of running against Kamala Harrison in 2024. It's going to be incumbent upon Republicans to make the case that policies they've enacted under Trump are going to yield better results than what they experienced under Democrats. And I think if they're able to do that, they'll be in a strong position to make

Starting point is 00:08:33 an argument that they should retain the power that they have today. And speaking of immigration judicial fights, the city of Chicago, the state of Illinois, encompassing it as well as several other blue cities around the country, are still attempting to encourage civil unrest and endorse official acts against the administration's immigration policies. Much of this civil unrest turns into rioting, in which case vehicles are slammed into law enforcement officers, rocks are thrown at the heads of law enforcement, and other acts of domestic terrorism take place. We got a chance to talk to Julio Rosas of the Blaze and Nick Sodor, who was just assaulted in Portland and arrested for it. To describe what reporting is like on the ground in these Julio Rosas of the Blase, and Nick Sordor, who was just assaulted in

Starting point is 00:09:19 of the Blaze and Nick Sordor, he of the number one public enemy in Portland variety. Gentlemen, thanks for hopping on. Yeah, thanks for having us, Tony. Appreciate you having it. So let's dig right into the specifics of the current ice operational details here. I know there's a lot of movement on the ground

Starting point is 00:09:41 with protesters appearing to use vehicles in order to kind of stall ice agents or Border Patrol agents and then these crowds up right after. You guys track a lot of the crowd movement. How coordinated are the traffic kind of accident situations to these instantaneous protest groups descending on them? Well, it just depends because, you know, it depends on the city, right? I mean, Chicago has proven itself to be very confrontational. I mean, they make no qualms about that. I mean, they're certainly not afraid of Chicago police in general. So naturally, that was going

Starting point is 00:10:17 to translate over to DHS. That is something similar that we've seen in Los Angeles as well with using cars and and getting people as quickly as they can to an operation. So they're learning from each other. And I think Nick, you know, he'll certainly, you know, he's seen some of that where they take cues from what works in places like Portland or New York or, you know, Boston even kind of popped off the other day. So this is it, it's just a continuation of what we've seen.

Starting point is 00:10:47 And it's because that they. see that deportations are not stopping, so naturally they're going to escalate their tactics. And join us tonight at 7 p.m. Eastern for a roundup of the day's news and nonsense on the Tony Kinnett cast. I'm Tony Kinnett, and this has been the Daily Signal's top news in 10. Take care.

The Daily Signal - Major Democrat Infighting, Legal Battle Smorgasbord, Expected Riots in Chicago | Oct. 17, 2025

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