House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) put the Democrats on blast with their own words, showing their hypocrisy as they protested against previous government shutdowns while refusing to put a stop to the looming shutdown that will occur at midnight Tuesday if they do not compromise with Republicans.
Johnson has the following video playing on loop on a television outside his office in the U.S. Capitol, pointing out the blatant contradictions of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and more:
“It is not normal to shut down the government when we don’t get what we want,” Ocasio-Cortez said on the House floor in 2019.
Almost exactly one year ago, Schumer apparently cared about how the government shutdown that he is currently hell-bent on forcing would impact average Americans.
“If the government shuts down, it will be average Americans who suffer most. A government shutdown means seniors who rely on Social Security could be thrown into chaos,” the minority leader said in a September 2024 speech criticizing “hard-right Republicans” and “MAGA radicals.”
Jeffries, Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-MA), and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) were also featured in Johnson’s video, complaining of how a shutdown would harm working-class Americans and public servants.
“Families will be hurt. Farmers will be hurt,” Jeffries said in December 2024.
“It’s the service members who will work without a paycheck. It’s the firefighters who will be furloughed,” Clark said in September 2023.
In a video posted to her social media followers last year, Pressley said “This shutdown — you know who’s going to feel the pain? You know who it hurts? You. Every day people, and the most vulnerable. Seniors, veterans, working families, hungry kids, y’all.”
Despite the Democrats’ previous grandstanding, they have refused to work with Republicans to keep the government from shutting down on October 1, Breitbart News has reported.
President Donald Trump called them out during a Tuesday Oval Office press conference, saying, “They are shutting it down. We’re not shutting it down. We don’t want it to shut down because we have the greatest period of time ever. I tell you we have $17 trillion being invested, so the last person that wants it shut down is us.”
Multiple Republicans have stated that Schumer will be blamed for the impending shutdown if it goes through.
Olivia Rondeau is a politics reporter for Breitbart News based in Washington, DC. Find her on X/Twitter and Instagram.
