House GOP leadership has leaned into attacking New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani at their daily government shutdown press conference.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), referencing House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’s (D-NY) endorsement of Mamdani last week, said this “dangerous ideology” is what is “motivating them” in reference to the government shutdown.
As Republicans tie Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to the shutdown, calling it the “Schumer shutdown,” the rest of Johnson’s leadership team has leaned into casting blame on Mamdani, saying Democrats are appeasing the left wing of their party.
“They’d rather run in circles, tripping over their own feet in the process and hanging their constituents out to dry,” House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) said. “Why? In order to attain political ‘leverage’ and score points with the radical, Mamdani and Omar Fateh-supporting — that, by the way, for those of you who don’t know, is the Mamdani of the Midwest, Omar Fateh — wing of their party.”
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) called Mamdani the “new leader of the Democratic Party.”
“You really want to know who’s calling the shots in the Democratic Party?” Scalise said. “You saw it on the stage this past weekend — Bernie and AOC on the stage with the new leader of the Democratic Party, Mamdani.”
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Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) attended the GOP press conference on Wednesday morning to hear the GOP’s talking points. She then rebutted them to reporters.
“New York City has almost nothing to do with Toledo, Ohio,” Kaptur said in response.
Johnson later defended his decision to keep the House out of session for the entirety of the shutdown, saying, “It doesn’t matter what we do in-house, it doesn’t matter what we pass.” The speaker called bringing the lower chamber back to vote on a new continuing resolution before Nov. 21 a “futile exercise.”
“If I brought the House back, and we passed another CR, it would meet the exact same fate with Chuck Schumer,” Johnson added.
As the House remains out of session, House staffers on Capitol Hill have continued to come to work as their first missed paycheck looms on Oct. 31, per an email sent by the Payroll and Benefits Office.
“Due to the lapse in appropriations, the October 2025 monthly pay disbursement scheduled for pay date of Friday, October 31, will be delayed until after funding is enacted,” the email stated.
The government has been shut down for nearly a month, as no negotiations have taken place. The House-passed continuing resolution to fund the government until Nov. 21 still sits in the upper chamber, where it has failed to meet the 60-vote threshold to hit the president’s desk and reopen the government.
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Schumer has tried to keep enough of his Democratic caucus in line to force Republicans to strike a deal that meets Democratic demands on healthcare. Only Sen. Angus King (I-ME) and two Democrats have backed the GOP plan. Lawmakers have begun floating a long-term continuing resolution, which could extend Biden-era funding levels through the end of the fiscal year, as the shutdown prods forward.
The Washington Examiner reached out to Mamdani’s team for comment.