Today, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) joined Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), Conference Chairwoman Lisa McClain (R-Mich.), and House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) to discuss Democrat senators and aides admitting that they would reopen the government if it weren't for their fear of angering their far-left base. Leader Scalise highlighted Democrats’ moral corruption – pointing to Senator Ossoff prioritizing his personal fundraising efforts over helping hardworking Georgia families by ending the shutdown.
  
Excerpts from Leader Scalise’s remarks:

On Senate Democrats refusing to reopen the government to avoid ‘angry backlash’ from their base: 

“The Hill, in a pretty riveting article, laid bare the underbelly of the Democrat Party's motivation. It truly is fear, fear of their own party's base, that has driven the Democrats, especially in the Senate, to shut down the government. It's a calculated decision. The continued votes, including yesterday, to keep the government shut down, has been a direct result of the fear Democrats continue to have of their own party's base. Some of the most radical elements that you saw at the Hate America rally. We showed it up here on this dais, yesterday, with some of the most vile things that you saw: Many people that were holding signs, calling for the death of the President of the United States. 

“That's who Democrats in the Senate are most afraid of, and they're willing to inflict pain on millions of American families. I think it's very important to understand what they're saying. There was one Senate Democrat aide who said, ‘People are going to get hammered by their liberal base if they vote to open up the government.’ So, they're not concerned about the millions of families who are suffering because they're keeping the government shut down. They're just worried about getting hammered from their own base. The Speaker laid out some of this, too. There was another senator who said, ‘They'd vote to open up the yesterday if left to their own devices, but don't want to risk an angry backlash from their base.’ They'd be more than willing to do it. They know it's the right thing to do to open up the government, but they're scared to death of the backlash from the radicals in the Democrat Party. Another person said enough Democrats would vote to reopen the government ‘if people were not terrified of getting the guillotine.’ You know what that means? When they're more scared of their own party's base, you talk about profiles in courage. That's what we're experiencing.”
 
On Senator Ossoff keeping the government shut down to maximize political fundraising: 

“In every state, there is real pain being inflicted. People that aren't sure if they're going to get another paycheck if they're working for the federal government. There's a state, Georgia, that has a number of military bases, a lot of other federal workers. [CDC] is headquartered in the state of Georgia. What is one of their senators, Senator Ossoff, thinking about all this? Another Democrat said Senator Ossoff’s calculation is, ‘Do I vote to open the government up and get crushed and can't raise a single dollar of low-dollar money? Or do I vote to shut the government down and get $3 million from online fundraising?’ That's disgusting. Senator Ossoff is more concerned about getting low-dollar donations from maybe some donor in California who's going to click on an email and give him $100 for his re-election. And so he's causing suffering on tens of thousands of people in his home state of Georgia. Senator Ossoff ought to send that tainted, dirty money back. If he's raised $3 million off of the shutdown, off of the suffering he's caused, just so that he can get some more money from radicals around the country. Go look at his finance report during the shutdown. The low-dollar donations that he's more concerned about getting than opening up the government, which is the right thing to do, because they're scared to death of their base, because they want to keep getting low-dollar donations from the most radical members of the Democrat Party. That's what this is about. We've been saying it, but now that Hill article truly exposed it with anonymous senators finally speaking freely with other Democrat aides admitting what's really going on their side.”

On Democrats’ moral corruption: 

“What is there to offer to a party who's so morally corrupt and bankrupt that they're willing to sell out the American people because they're either scared of their base or they want to just keep getting low-dollar donations from donors around the country who are rooting for chaos for America, who want to undermine this country? That's what's going on here. The American people are figuring it out. People in Georgia are figuring it out. They know why they're seeing the suffering, and their own two senators are voting for that suffering, and now you know why – it's laid out in full display for everybody to see.
 
“We're here ready to get back to the people's work for all the American people, not just for some far-left radical base who's holding the Democrat Party in DC hostage. Finally, show some courage, some moral clarity. All we need is five senators to stand up and do the right thing, and it's long past time they do it.”

###