GOP spreads increasingly desperate and dangerous lies to shirk blame for their shutdown

[Thiệu Ngô]

Congressional Cowards is a weekly series highlighting the worst Donald Trump defenders on Capitol Hill, who refuse to criticize him—no matter how disgraceful or lawless his actions.

By Emily Singer

As public polls show that Americans blame Republicans for the government shutdown, Republican lawmakers are now spreading a dangerous lie that Democrats are waiting until an Oct. 18 No Kings rally in Washington, D.C., to give them the votes they need to fund the government.

Not only is it an obvious lie, but the rhetoric Republicans are using as they spread said lie is inflammatory and dangerous.

"This is about one thing and one thing alone: To score political points with the terrorist wing of their party, which is set to hold a hate America rally in D.C. next week," House Majority Whip Tom Emmer said Friday at a news conference on Capitol Hill.

House Speaker Mike Johnson made almost identical comments at the same news conference, as well as during a Fox News interview.

"This hate America rally that they have coming up for October 18? The antifa crowd, the pro-Hamas crowd, and the Marxists, they're all gonna gather on the Mall. It is an outrageous gathering for outrageous purposes," Johnson said in the news conference, referring to the peaceful No Kings rally in which average Americans plan to show up to voice their opposition to Trump’s shredding of the Constitution.

"I mean, I'm a very patient guy, but I have had it with these people," Johnson then told Fox News. "They're playing games with real people's lives. The theory we have right now—they have a hate America rally that's scheduled for October 18 on the National Mall. It's all the pro-Hamas wing and antifa people, they're all coming out. Some of the House Democrats, they're selling T-shirts for the event. And it's being told to us that they won't be able to reopen the government until after that rally because they can't face their rabid base. I mean this is serious business."

These horrendous lies with incendiary rhetoric come as Republicans have blamed the "left" for political violence in the country, falsely saying that Democrats who call out the authoritarian actions of Trump and his GOP defenders were responsible for right-wing activist Charlie Kirk’s murder.

Yet in the same breath they are accusing Democrats of holding a "hate America" rally and calling the protesters who will attend "antifa,” "Marxists," and “terrorists”—ratchet ed-up lies that could get people killed.

"The very people who were loudest in lecturing us on political rhetoric now label millions of Americans peacefully exercising their constitutional right to free speech 'terrorist' because they don't hold conservative views," Democratic Rep. Don Beyer of Virginia wrote in a post on X. "Disgraceful and unacceptable."

Ultimately, the reason the government remains closed is because Republicans are refusing to negotiate with Democrats—who want to ensure that subsidies that help millions afford their health insurance will be extended to prevent people from seeing double-digit increases in their premiums.

What’s more, even as GOP leaders say that Democrats should vote for their spending bill because it funds the government at the same rate as the previous year, they are then privately telling their own members that it doesn't matter anyway, as they will use a simple majority vote to cut funds from whatever spending bill ultimately gets passed.

How Republicans expect Democrats to negotiate with them when they are already planning to break their agreements is beyond comprehension.

But more to the point, the Oct. 18 No Kings rally is a peaceful protest of concerned Americans who are tired of Trump and Republicans' lawless behavior. That’s not a “hate America” rally at all. In fact it’s the opposite, with protesters wanting to protect the democratic society we live in rather than see it descend into an authoritarian hellscape.

The organizers of the No Kings rally had this to say:

“Speaker Johnson is running out of excuses for keeping the government shut down. Instead of reopening the government, preserving affordable healthcare, or lowering costs for working families, he’s attacking millions of Americans who are peacefully coming together to say that America belongs to its people, not to kings," the rally organizers wrote in a statement. "We’ll see everyone on October 18.”