Senators Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego, the two Democrats from Arizona, strode across the Capitol on Wednesday afternoon and parked themselves in front of the Speaker Mike Johnson’s office.
They were there to hold a news conference publicly criticizing Mr. Johnson for keeping the House out of session during the government shutdown and refusing to seat Representative-elect Adelita Grijalva, the Democrat who won a special election last month in their state.
What they got instead was a heated confrontation with Mr. Johnson himself.
As Mr. Gallego was calling Mr. Johnson a disgrace and trying to pin the blame on him for the shutdown, the Republican speaker came striding out of his suite at the center of the Capitol to greet them.
“Oh, hey gentleman,” Mr. Johnson said calmly.
Mr. Gallego immediately started grilling Mr. Johnson on why he was refusing to seat Ms. Grijalva, who is poised to provide the final signature needed to force a floor vote on whether to demand that the Trump administration release the Epstein files.
“You don’t want her to be on the Epstein discharge petition,” Mr. Gallego pressed him.
“Totally absurd,” Mr. Johnson shot back. “You guys are experts at red herrings and distraction.”
The speaker professed to be “happy she got elected,” noting that Ms. Grijalva would be filling the seat of her father, former Representative Raúl Grijalva, who died in March. But he claimed that because of the shutdown, his hands were tied and he could not seat her.
“We need the lights turned back on,” he said. “We encourage both of you to go open the government.”
There is no such rule for swearing in a duly elected member of Congress. The House can continue to operate even in the event of a government shutdown, and lawmakers may be sworn in even when the chamber is not formally in legislative session.
Mr. Johnson has administered the oath at such moments in the past. He swore in two Florida Republicans who won their seats in special elections earlier this year while the House was not meeting for normal business. But he said he would not do so for Ms. Grijalva because she was elected while the House was out of session.
“This is an excuse,” Mr. Gallego said, insisting that the delay was to keep Ms. Grijalva from signing on to the Epstein measure.
Mr. Johnson replied by accusing the senators of staging a publicity stunt.
He was not wrong. Mr. Kelly and Mr. Gallego seemed gleeful about their luck in drawing Mr. Johnson out to publicly spar with them in front of a gaggle of reporters recording the confrontation on their phones.
Mr. Gallego was skeptical of Mr. Johnson’s explanations. “It all happens to coincide with the fact that she’s going to be the deciding vote on the discharge petition?” Mr. Gallego pressed.
“I know why you’re upset,” Mr. Johnson answered in a patronizing tone. “You’re getting a lot of heat because the government is shut down.”
At that point, Mr. Kelly stepped in, casting himself as the good cop to Mr. Gallego’s more combative bad cop.
“Why don’t we do this,” Mr. Kelly said calmly. “Why don’t you bring your Republican members back so we can have a serious negotiation?”
Mr. Kelly said that House Republicans were “sitting in their basements” on a prolonged summer vacation.
At that point, everyone seemed to notice that at least one House Republican, Representative Mike Lawler of New York, was pressed up against the wall with members of Mr. Johnson’s staff, observing the confrontation.
Mr. Johnson waved him over to join the heated discussion.
“We have a lot of issues to work on together,” Mr. Johnson said. “And Republicans are the party — ”
“Who are going to kill health care,” Mr. Gallego interjected. “Stop covering up for pedophiles.”
At that, Mr. Lawler jumped into the fray.
“Nobody’s covering up for pedophiles, so knock it the hell off,” he interjected.
Mr. Johnson pronounced the Democrats’ accusations “ridiculous,” and said it was time for him get back to work.
“The House has done its work,” Mr. Johnson added, encouraging the Democrats to go find a way to reopen the government.
“Thanks for visiting,” he said.
With that, the speaker retreated back into his office suite and the senators turned back to the reporters who were standing silently witnessing the altercation.
“That was fun,” Mr. Kelly said.
Annie Karni is a congressional correspondent for The Times.
The post Inside the Capitol, A Heated Spat Over the Shutdown and Epstein appeared first on New York Times.
