Sen. Ted Cruz (Screengrab)
The celebrity rag with a pro-Donald Trump slant is now sending its paparazzi to follow lawmakers on break during Holy Week.
The two-week vacation began on Friday for the House of Representatives after Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) announced he would not allow the House to vote on the bill. The U.S. Senate passed the bill overnight that would fully fund the TSA, the Secret Service, and other agencies. Johnson said he would call members back if anything happened, but sent members home anyway, refusing a vote.
TMZ has taken it upon itself to harass members of Congress for leaving Washington, NOTUS reported on Tuesday.
"To show how fed up the American people are. Because we are. It's so insulting that the Republicans blame the Democrats ... no, it's both of your faults," said TMZ chief Harvey Levin.
Democrats agree, saying that they were ready to vote on the unanimous Senate bill.
TMZ tracked Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) to Las Vegas, where they claimed he was hanging out at a casino.
"California Congressman Robert Garcia was hangin' at a Vegas casino Sunday, while thousands of federal workers are goin' belly up," the site posted on Threads.
Garcia agrees that lawmakers should be back in Washington, but noted he was at the casino having lunch with his dad on the way back to his district.
"Actually I don’t mind what TMZ is doing here. Like the story says my dad has lived in Vegas for 15 years and I had just finished lunch with him. I try to see him whenever I can. And like I said a few days ago, Speaker Mike Johnson should have never sent us all home," he wrote.
The following day he was back in Long Beach, California.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) was tracked by TMZ to Disney World, which spread across the internet on Monday. Buy Monday evening, Graham claiming he was shooting off guns instead, which TMZ wrote was "days after he was packing a bubble wand in the Magic Kingdom ... but, all while the government shutdown still drags on."
"Kinda hard to ignore LG's huge pivot from theme parks to the shooting range. We broke the story," bragged TMZ.
They then tracked Ted Cruz (R-Texas) chilling on the plane and Rep. Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) walking through the airport with the police security escort.
Clark later told CNN, "We should be in Washington today. I agree with everything he just said. And what did we get to? We got to a bipartisan agreement. There is one segment of Congress that when it come and take a step forward into agreeing to put TSA workers, put Coast Guard, FEMA, our cyber security, those working at our ports and in customs first pay them for the work they are doing. And that's House Republicans. Unanimous in the Senate. Republicans and Democrats. That is what the people are hungry for, for us to come together," said Clark.
TMZ also reported seeing Senate Majority Leader John Thune at the airport, leaving town, where it asked him if he thought everything was resolved. He said he hoped so, but that there was still a lot of work left to do.
Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso and Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) were both spotted at airports, too.
President Donald Trump has a rarely used power he could deploy that would require all members to return to Washington to vote on the bipartisan bill. Democrats have thought about using a discharge petition, which, when signed by a majority of lawmakers, would force a vote on the bill. It's how the law was passed that forced the Justice Department to make the investigation files of trafficker Jeffrey Epstein public.
On Friday, however, Johnson told reporters that he'd just spoken to Trump and that the president supported his plan to block the vote, even if it meant more federal workers wouldn't get paid.