Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) is facing criticism after a resurfaced 2023 video shows him passionately denouncing government shutdowns under former President Joe Biden, yet now, with President Donald Trump back in power and another shutdown looming, Schiff is shifting the blame to Republicans.
The video, now circulating on social media, captures Schiff warning about the severe consequences of a government shutdown when Democrats controlled both the Senate and the White House. He expressed concerns for federal workers, TSA employees, and military personnel who would miss paychecks during a funding lapse.
“Had the government shut down, hundreds of thousands of people would have not gotten their paychecks. Federal employees would have been furloughed, sent home. Others deemed essential, like TSA workers, they would have been forced to go to work and not paid,” Schiff said in the video.
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Now, Schiff seems to have a very different perspective. In a new TikTok video, he shifts the blame to the Republican-controlled Congress, arguing that the government shutdown is entirely their responsibility.
“So is the government shutting down? Well, that depends on Donald Trump and the Republicans. They control the White House. They control the House. They control the Senate. It’s really up to them,” Schiff said this week in a newly posted video.
“What we should do is something short-term that will allow members of Congress to agree on setting regular funding levels for every part of the government and to insist that they be observed by the president,” he said in the video.
Schiff then alleged that Republicans had passed a partisan resolution that altered various funding levels and stripped Congress of the power to overturn Trump’s tariffs.
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Critics swiftly pointed out that during the Biden administration, Schiff and other Democrats readily employed partisan budget measures to advance their own agenda.
“I am not a violent person nor am I suggesting that anyone do this. However, don’t you want to punch this Ahole in the face every time he opens his lie hole? (Get it? I changed pie hole to lie hole. I get credit for coining the phrase!!),” one user joked.
“If you look in a dictionary for the meaning of ‘hypocrisy’ you’ll see the face of Adam Schiff,” said another.
Another added, “Can’t believe a word any DemocRAT says, especially Adam ‘Pencil Neck’ Schiff, a proven and serial liar.”
“Adam Schiff voted for all of Biden’s CRs and now they are playing chicken to see who blinks first. The Democrats want their way and will shutdown the government. They have been using our tax dollars [to] support their elections and go after Republicans. This can’t stand,” the Southern Belle X account noted.
Meanwhile, the Department of Government Efficiency under Elon Musk is continuing to find and eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse throughout the government. The agency announced Tuesday it has canceled more than 200,000 government credit cards in a post on X.
DOGE, which is overseen by White House advisor Elon Musk, said on Feb. 18 that it was working with agencies to simplify the credit card accounts and reduce admin costs. It estimated the federal government had 4.6 million credit cards and 90 million unique transactions in the fiscal year 2024, USA Today reported.
A week later, President Donald Trump issued an executive order to commence a “transformation in Federal spending,” that called for a 30-day freeze on agency employee credit cards.
On Tuesday, DOGE released its three-week update on canceled credit cards, noting that the pilot program is auditing 16 agencies. The Health and Human Services Department and the Department of the Interior made “great progress this past week.”
