‘You’re Embarrassing Yourself’: Tensions Boil Over on Capitol Hill as Shutdown Drags On

The government may be shut down and the House isn’t in session — but lawmakers are having debates in the halls of the Capitol.

On Wednesday alone, Speaker Mike Johnson held a debate with two Democratic senators about the government shutdown and the Epstein files, just hours before House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries sparred with Rep. Mike Lawler over the Republican’s bipartisan legislation to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies.

During the tense confrontation, Jeffries repeatedly told his colleague in the New York delegation, “You’re embarrassing yourself.”

The two cases of bickering lawmakers are the culmination of frustration on both sides of the Capitol — and the political aisle — as the government shutdown drags into its second week without substantive conversations toward ending it.

Lawler confronted Jeffries after his press conference Wednesday, asking him to cosponsor his legislation that would extend the health care subsidies for another year — something Jeffries has called a “nonstarter.”

“You’re not going to talk to me, or talk over me, because you don’t want to hear what I want to say,” Jeffries told Lawler. “So why don’t you just keep your mouth shut.”

It was a back-and-forth argument with no clear resolution between the two New Yorkers, with Jeffries taking shots at Lawler for not running for governor and not answering questions about his legislation to extend the ACA subsidies, which is what Democrats are fighting for in the shutdown.

Lawler showed Jeffries a physical copy of his legislation and asked him to support the bill if he wanted to end the shutdown.

“You wanted Republicans to be here, I am here,” Lawler told Jeffries. “You can pass an ACA extension right now. Sign onto this bill. Why won’t you get on it?”

Hours earlier, Democratic Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego were talking to reporters outside of Johnson’s office — raging against the Louisiana Republican for not swearing in their state’s Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva — when Johnson himself joined the scrum.

“We’re happy that she got elected. She’s filling her father’s seat. That’s fantastic. We have a long tradition here and a process of how we administer the oath to a member,” Johnson told the senators during an extended back-and-forth that lasted nearly seven minutes and was witnessed by dozens of reporters.

At one point, Lawler joined the debate with Johnson, and slammed the senators for not supporting the Republican bill to keep the government open as the shutdown reaches Day 8 on Wednesday.

“We’ve actually put forward the legislation to do it,” a visibly frustrated Lawler told the senators. “You guys just keep pontificating.”

At issue during the spontaneous debate between the House Republicans and Democratic senators is the ongoing finger-pointing between the two parties over the shutdown.

Republicans blame Democrats for the shutdown, after most of the Senate Democratic Caucus continues to vote against a bill passed by House Republicans that would keep the government open through Nov. 21. Democrats have been calling for bipartisan negotiations to extend expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies, which Republicans say they won’t participate in until the government reopens.

Democrats are also calling for Grijalva to be sworn in during a pro forma session, which Johnson has done in the past with Republican Reps. Jimmy Patronis and Randy Fine. They say Johnson is delaying swearing in Grijalva because she would be the 218th signature on Reps. Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie’s discharge petition that would trigger the House to vote to compel the Department of Justice to release the Epstein files.

“I’m not blocking her,” Johnson said to Gallego and Kelly. “This has nothing to do with Epstein.”

He later added: “You see, this is a publicity stunt. Let me tell you what’s happening. The House Oversight Committee is working on the release of the Epstein files,” Johnson said.