On Thursday, October 23, 2025, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson found himself at the center of a political firestorm, as criticism mounted over his handling of the ongoing government shutdown and his refusal to seat Arizona Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva (D). The day saw Johnson deploying a mix of deflection, blame, and precedent-claiming, all while the consequences of the shutdown rippled through American life, from airport terminals to the halls of Congress.
With the nation bracing for a busy weekend of travel and football, Johnson attempted to shift the narrative by appealing directly to sports fans. According to Raw Story, Johnson warned, "Hundreds of thousands of Americans are going to travel to football games this weekend, for example, and if the current trajectory continues, many Americans could miss watching their favorite teams and reconnecting with friends and family." He went a step further, urging frustrated travelers to direct their anger at Democrats: "So football fans, hey, if you're stuck in the airport this weekend while your favorite team is about to kick off, you can blame the Democrats for that, all right?"
But the finger-pointing didn’t land smoothly. As Raw Story and other outlets pointed out, the current decline in U.S. air travel reliability has unfolded under the watch of President Donald Trump’s administration. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has reportedly threatened unpaid federal workers in an attempt to patch staffing shortages—shortages that critics say stem from the administration’s own downsizing of the federal workforce. The result? Delays, frustration, and a growing sense that the government shutdown is hurting ordinary Americans more than anyone else.
The shutdown’s impact extended beyond airports and into the heart of Congress itself. On the same Thursday, CNBC host Andrew Ross Sorkin confronted Johnson on live television about his refusal to swear in Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva, a Democrat from Arizona. Grijalva’s swearing-in has been delayed, and her supporters say the holdup is political—especially since she has indicated she would be the crucial vote to force the release of files related to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Johnson, for his part, bristled at the suggestion that politics played a role. "Okay, this is so absurd, and I've answered it so many times, but I'll do it again," he said, according to Raw Story. "I'm following the Pelosi precedent. She was speaker here a long time. She did this many times." Johnson cited the case of former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who took 25 days to swear in Rep. Julia Letlow (R-VA) after her special election, as justification for the delay.
Yet, that defense quickly ran into trouble. During the CNBC interview, Sorkin pointed out that even former Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy had disputed Johnson’s position, suggesting the delay was motivated by politics, not precedent. Sorkin pressed the issue: "He made an interesting point, though, about what you're describing, which is that it is politics, and I'm not suggesting it isn't. When you even look at what Nancy Pelosi did — we could, we could just, if we wanted, together, we could say this is a disgrace and condemn the fact that politics are taking place here and that there is a precedent." Sorkin concluded, "But I think rather than look to that, the question is, it doesn't have to be this way. This is a choice that's being made. And I think that is the issue here."
Johnson, undeterred, argued that Grijalva could still serve her constituents, even without being sworn in. "Rep.-elect Grijalva can work for her constituents right now," he insisted. "Constituent services answering the phone. She has computers and 16 employees, and there's no excuse for it." He further claimed that the much-anticipated Epstein files were already being released: "The Epstein files are being released. 43,000 pages now. There was another batch of documents dumped on Friday of last week, which included Epstein's personal ledgers, his financial ledgers, his daily calendar, his flight logs, all the things that people have been saying they wanted. It's all coming out."
However, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes (D) wasn’t convinced. In a lawsuit filed this week, Mayes highlighted that Pelosi had coordinated with Letlow to schedule her swearing-in at a mutually convenient time. The lawsuit stated, "[T]hen-Speaker Pelosi communicated with Dr. Letlow immediately after the election, and the swearing in was scheduled at a time convenient for all parties. Ms. Grijalva would be delighted if Speaker Johnson would contact her to commit to a mutually agreeable time, as Speaker Pelosi did for Dr. Letlow." The implication was clear: precedent, if anything, called for collaboration, not delay.
Meanwhile, the government shutdown continued to cast a long shadow. Johnson defended his decision not to reconvene the House during the crisis, claiming, "I mean, look, the CR that we sent over is a totally clean nonpartisan document. This is the first time in American history that any party has had the audacity to shut the government down over a clean, nonpartisan CR." His remarks reflected deep partisan frustration, but did little to reassure those affected by the shutdown’s real-world consequences.
As the weekend approached, Americans faced the prospect of missed flights, delayed reunions, and a Congress mired in gridlock. Football fans, travelers, and constituents alike were caught in the crossfire of a political standoff that showed no sign of abating. The blame game played out on television screens and in courtrooms, with each side accusing the other of intransigence and bad faith.
For many observers, the spectacle underscored a deeper malaise in American politics. The government shutdown and the Grijalva controversy weren’t isolated incidents, but symptoms of a system increasingly defined by partisan brinkmanship and a willingness to use procedural levers for political gain. As Sorkin noted on CNBC, "This is a choice that's being made." The question now is who will pay the price—and whether anyone in Washington is willing to break the stalemate before more Americans are caught in the fallout.
As Speaker Johnson stands firm and his critics grow louder, the country waits for a resolution. With the holiday season and football playoffs looming, patience is running thin. The shutdown’s effects are no longer abstract—they’re showing up in missed games, empty chairs at family gatherings, and a growing sense that Washington’s battles are hitting home in ways that can’t be ignored.
