A growing number of lawmakers have been spotted fleeing Washington, D.C. as tens of thousands of federal workers continue to go unpaid amid the ongoing partial government shutdown, and TMZ has developed a “new obsession” of exposing them, NOTUS reported Tuesday.
“It outraged us so much we wanted to use our platforms to show how Congress – Dems AND Republicans – have betrayed us,” TMZ executive producer Harvey Levin told NOTUS in a statement.
“We spontaneously came up with the idea to juxtapose members of Congress on their Spring Break against federal workers who are losing their homes, their cars, their livelihoods. Short story – our DC presence will sometimes be fun, sometimes intensely serious.”
Among the first lawmakers to be called out by TMZ for fleeing D.C. amid the ongoing shutdown was Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who was spotted having a “grand ol’ time” at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, and sporting a bubble wand as he strolled through the “Tangled” section of the park.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) were also spotted boarding a plane Friday heading out of D.C., and Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) was spotted at a casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-WY) was also “caught getting the hell out of D.C. amid the federal government shutdown,” TMZ reported.
Graham said he had only visited Walt Disney World due to being in Florida on official business, and Garcia said he was visiting his father who has “lived in Vegas for 15 years.”