Staff Reports
Watching Hakeem Jeffries stand at the lectern and hurl the charge that “the Trump administration and Mike Johnson are running a pedophile protection program” was a low point even for Washington theatrics. That outrageous line was recycled across the left-wing press as if it were serious policy critique rather than the kind of sensational, unproven accusation designed to inflame and distract.
The moment Jeffries lobbed that claim, he knew the cameras would do the work his party hasn’t: papering over a record of failure with feverish conspiracy-mongering. The woman at the center of the spat, Adelita Grijalva, clearly won her Sept. 23 special election but still has not been sworn in, leaving more than 800,000 Arizonans without representation while both parties play political games.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has explained that he will swear in new members when the House resumes full legislative business, tying the ceremony to the larger funding fight in Washington — a procedural stance the left prefers to paint as moral rot rather than a routine consequence of a funding lapse. Democrats immediately pounced, accusing Republicans of nefarious motives the instant anyone refuses to play along with their narrative.
Let’s be blunt: the real harm here is not grand conspiracies but a self-inflicted political paralysis that began when Congress failed to pass appropriations and the government went dark on October 1. Millions of Americans and federal employees have been damaged by this shutdown, yet Democrats respond by shouting smears instead of offering workable solutions or insisting on compromise.
Worse, the party that pretends righteous outrage has been willing to use shutdown drama as bargaining leverage and to block commonsense stopgaps when it suits their messaging, all while branding any Republican caution as proof of corruption. That is the real scandal: performative outrage and transactional politics that punish everyday Americans while Democrat leaders stage viral moments for donors and cable TV.
