The House minority leader yelled at Republican lawmakers to “shut up.” And that’s just the beginning.
Democrats and Republicans still haven’t found a compromise
Eight days into the government shutdown, Democrats and Republicans appear no closer to a deal.
WASHINGTON – Two weeks into a government shutdown with no end in sight, tensions are rising among those with the power to end it.
This week on Capitol Hill, two Democratic senators confronted the Republican Speaker of the House in front of his office, accusing him of “covering up a pedophile” by avoiding a vote to release more information about the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The same day, the Democratic House minority leader separately yelled at Republican lawmakers to “shut up.” And that’s just the beginning.
The grim scenes highlight the increasingly fraught relationship between America’s two major political parties as the first government shutdown in seven years approaches the start of its third week. Lawmakers made little effort to resolve their differences in public. The House has not held a vote in more than three weeks, and the Senate has not worked all weekend since the budget expired at the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.
At the same time, the risk of a shutdown only increases for ordinary Americans. On Wednesday, October 15th, service members will not receive their paychecks for the first time since the shutdown crisis began. Funding for key food assistance programs that millions of mothers and infants rely on will likely run out within days. And the key economic data needed to calculate Social Security payments for more than 70 million Americans next year doesn’t appear to be released anytime soon.
Lawmakers say they are starting to feel the pressure, and it shows in their interactions with each other. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) said of his response to Democrats: “I’m trying to rally as much Christian charity as I can.”
“It’s bare-knuckle in this fight,” added Rep. Jimmy Gomez, D-Calif.
senator confronts speaker
On Wednesday, October 8, two Democratic senators from Arizona were outside the Oval Office complaining about Mr. Johnson.
That’s when the speaker emerged and walked toward Sens. Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly, who criticized him for refusing to swear in new Democratic representatives from their states during the shutdown.
They noted that once Congresswoman-elect Adelita Grijalva is officially sworn in, she will likely cast the final vote needed to pass legislation that would force the Justice Department to release more Epstein files.
Senators accused Mr. Johnson of keeping House members away from the Capitol to delay the vote on Mr. Epstein.
“As soon as I get back to work, I will do that as soon as I get back to work. But we need to turn the lights back on,” Johnson told reporters, according to a video from news agency NOTUS. “You guys are red herring experts…This has nothing to do with Epstein.”
“You just keep coming up with excuses,” Gallego shot back.
The heated exchange attracted the attention of security guards, staff and reporters, many of whom stood nearby, phones pulled out, watching intently. It ended with all three politicians discussing each at the same time. A video of the encounter has spread online.
Things got even hotter the next morning when Johnson got a call to C-SPAN. Frustrated Americans criticized him for failing to negotiate a solution to the government shutdown. One caller in particular was a woman living paycheck to paycheck in northern Virginia, the wife of a military officer, who told the House speaker that her children “could die” if troops were deployed without pay.
Democratic Party leader tells lawmaker to “shut up”
In another painful scene the same day, a conversation between Republican lawmakers and House Democratic leaders devolved into a shouting match.
Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) confronted House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) over his refusal to support a one-year extension of expired health insurance subsidies that are at the center of the shutdown fight.
“It’s unfortunate,” Lawler said, holding up a copy of the bill to continue the subsidies provided in the form of tax credits.
“Why not just shut up?” Jeffries said.
The commotion attracted onlookers, many of whom filmed the exchange, which was later shared online. Lawler told reporters after the uproar that Democrats were saying “there’s so much (expletive) it’s not funny.”
The next day, during a White House Cabinet meeting, President Donald Trump made a series of attacks on his political opponents and mentioned the government shutdown. President Trump said, “I have no idea who is leading the Democratic Party.”
signs of bipartisanship
There are still glimmers of bipartisanship in the halls of the Capitol.
Senators on both sides of the aisle are still talking to each other. Backchannel conversations continue among lawmakers about a health care deal that could help bring Democrats to a vote to reopen the government, but Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) said this week that those talks are “stalled.”
Similarly, Gallego gave some credibility to the Republican Party. “I’m talking to my friends in the Republican Party,” he told reporters. “They want to find solutions.”
Zachary Schermele is a Congressional reporter for USA TODAY. You can email us at zschermele@usatoday.com. Follow him on X at @ZachSchermele and on Bluesky at @zachschermele.bsky.social.
