As one of the most vulnerable Republicans in the Senate, Nevada's Dean Heller is trying to sidle away from President Trump when it comes to such issues as Trump's pardoning of former Maricopa County, Arizona, sheriff Joe Arpaio and his threat to shut down the government in order to fund his wall between the U.S. and Mexico border.
"I don't like shutting down the government," Heller said Monday during an interview with NBC News. "There will be no excuses and nobody else's fault but the Republican Party if this government does shut down." Heller said he is a strong supporter of border security, but argued that it doesn't make sense for there to be a physical wall along the entire border and it should be up to the Department of Homeland Security to decide what works best. On Arpaio, who was convicted of criminal contempt after disregarding a judge's order to stop detaining people on suspicion of being undocumented, Heller said he doesn't believe "anybody's above the law. I do believe the courts ought to run its course and let the system work its way through this. But I just don't believe anybody's above the law."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Jared and Ivanka's Albanian islandUnder The Radar The deal to develop Sazan has been met with widespread opposition
-
Storm warningFeature The U.S. is headed for an intense hurricane season. Will a shrunken FEMA and NOAA be able to respond?
-
U.S. v. Skrmetti: Did the trans rights movement overreach?Feature The Supreme Court upholds a Tennessee law that bans transgender care for minors, dealing a blow to trans rights
-
Trump sues LA over immigration policiesSpeed Read He is suing over the city's sanctuary law, claiming it prevents local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration authorities
-
Obama, Bush and Bono eulogize USAID on final daySpeed Read The US Agency for International Development, a humanitarian organization, has been gutted by the Trump administration
-
The last words and final moments of 40 presidentsThe Explainer Some are eloquent quotes worthy of the holders of the highest office in the nation, and others... aren't
-
Senate advances GOP bill that costs more, cuts moreSpeed Read The bill would make giant cuts to Medicaid and food stamps, leaving 11.8 million fewer people with health coverage
-
Canadian man dies in ICE custodySpeed Read A Canadian citizen with permanent US residency died at a federal detention center in Miami
-
GOP races to revise megabill after Senate rulingsSpeed Read A Senate parliamentarian ruled that several changes to Medicaid included in Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill" were not permissible
-
Supreme Court lets states ax Planned Parenthood fundsSpeed Read The court ruled that Planned Parenthood cannot sue South Carolina over the state's effort to deny it funding
-
Trump plans Iran talks, insists nuke threat goneSpeed Read 'The war is done' and 'we destroyed the nuclear,' said President Trump
