Eight days into the government shutdown with no end in sight, congressional sparring spilled outside the chamber floors and into the hallways.
There were two separate hallway confrontations among lawmakers in the Capitol on Wednesday related to the shutdown, as well as its impact on the delayed swearing in of a Democrat who could trigger a House vote on releasing the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking case files.
Reporters posted videos of the arguments to social media.
The first occurred when Arizona Democratic Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego showed up at House Speaker Mike Johnson’s office to complain about him keeping the House in recess during a shutdown and his refusal to swear in Arizona Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva during pro forma sessions.
Mr. Johnson told the senators he would bring the House back into session and swear in Ms. Grijalva as soon as they vote to reopen the government.
Mr. Gallego accused him of delaying to keep Ms. Grijalva from becoming the 218th and final signature on a discharge petition to force a vote on requiring the Justice Department to release its Epstein files.
The speaker said the accusation “is totally absurd” and called the Democrats “experts in red herrings and distractions.”
“This has nothing to do with Epstein,” he said. “The House Oversight Committee is working on the Epstein files right now, releasing 34,000 pages and more on the way.”
Mr. Gallego said he didn’t believe him and continued to press the speaker on why else he would delay swearing in Ms. Grijalva, who was elected in a Sept. 23 special election to replace her late father, the late Rep. Raúl Grijalva.
“I know why you’re upset,” Mr. Johnson said. “You’re getting a lot of heat because the government is closed down and you guys made the decision.”
Mr. Gallego and Mr. Kelly denied that the shutdown was their fault as they pressed the speaker on why he doesn’t bring House members back to Washington for “serious negotiation” about how to reopen the government. Democrats have made demands related to health care and extending a COVID-era expansion of Obamacare premium subsidies.
“We’re going to have plenty of negotiations as soon as you open the government,” Mr. Johnson said.
He said House Republicans are “in their districts working” because they did their job in Washington, passing a stopgap funding bill last month that Senate Democrats have been filibustering.
Some House Republicans are in Washington. New York GOP Rep. Mike Lawler happened to witness the confrontation and jumped in to defend the speaker.
“With all due respect, you voted multiple times to keep the government shutdown,” Mr. Lawler said of repeated Senate votes failing to overcome a filibuster on the House-passed stopgap. “So don’t sit here and try to lecture us about whether or not we did our job. We did our job, you did not.”
The confrontation then turned to extending the Obamacare subsidies, with the Democrats pressing the Republicans on their refusal to act. Mr. Lawler held up a paper copy of a bipartisan bill he is cosponsoring the extend the enhanced subsidies for one year.
“We have a lot of issues to work on together and Republicans are the party,” Mr. Johnson said, before Mr. Gallego cut him off and finished the sentence as “the party that’s going to kill health care.”
After some further sparring over Obamacare, Mr. Gallego brought it back to the Epstein files.
“Get your people in and stop covering up for the pedophiles,” he said.
The speaker called the comment “ridiculous” and said he was ending the Democrats’ “publicity stunt” so he could get back to work.
Mr. Lawler, however, was not done. A few hours later, he confronted House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, a fellow New Yorker, outside of the studio where House lawmakers hold press conferences.
Still armed with his copy of the bipartisan bill to provide a one-year extension of the enhanced Obamacare subsidies, Mr. Lawler asked Mr. Jeffries why he won’t sign onto it. Mr. Jeffries, the day before, called the one-year extension a “nonstarter,” and doubled down on that view in his Wednesday press conference as Mr. Lawler waited outside.
“Did your boss, Donald Trump, give you permission?” Mr. Jeffries said.
Mr. Lawler said Mr. Trump is not his boss and asked why the Democratic leader voted to shut the government down over the issue after years of urging against such hostage taking.
“You’re making a show of this to make yourself relevant,” Mr. Jeffries said. “You’re embarrassing yourself right now. You’re chasing clout.”
They then briefly sparred over the merits of Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act, but Mr. Jeffries grew frustrated.
“You’re not going to talk to me and talk over to me because you don’t want to hear what I have to say,” he said.
He accused Mr. Lawler of “doing the bidding” of billionaire dollars by supporting permanent tax cuts in the OBBB while opposing a permanent extension of the Obamacare subsidies.
There was some back and forth on that topic before Mr. Jeffries turned to 2026 politics.
“Are you trying to elevate yourself because you’re afraid you’re going to lose reelection?” he said.
Mr. Lawler said he was not going to lose his reelection campaign and noted Democrats failed to oust him in 2024 and fell short of their campaign to retake the House.
“You spent $42 million last cycle. You didn’t do that great,” he said.
The spat briefly turned back to the Obamacare subsidies before Mr. Lawler accused Mr. Jeffries of shutting down the government because he’s “so afraid of Zohran Mamdani” and asked why he hasn’t endorsed the New York mayoral candidate yet.
“I don’t answer to you,” Mr. Jeffries said. “You don’t even answer to yourself.”
The confrontation concluded where it started, on the one-year extension of the Obamacare subsidies, which Mr. Jeffries noted is “not a bill that Republicans are even prepared to bring to the floor.”
“Do you understand math?” he said. “There are 220 Republicans. You come to me with 11?”
Mr. Lawler countered that if all 215 Democrats signed onto the bill, it would have than the 218 votes needed to pass the House.
Both lawmakers’ references to how many members there are in each party did not account for vacant House seats. There currently are 219 Republicans and 213 Democrats, which will rise to 214 after Ms. Grijalva is sworn in.
As the argument ended, Mr. Jeffries offered one final political dig before he walked away.
“I’ve indulged you. I’ve given you your 15 minutes of fame,” he said. “You’re a complete and total embarrassment. You’re embarrassing yourself and your district right now, and you’re going down to defeat next year.”
