00:00All right, it's Halloween here on Capitol Hill, and I wish I could say this feels spooky, but in Congress, we call this Friday.
00:06I just got out of House Speaker Mike Johnson's press conference.
00:09He's had one every day during the government shutdown, and he made some claims that just don't hold up.
00:14The Democrats are lying about that.
00:16Now, I won't accuse Mike Johnson of lying like he accused Democrats of doing, but some of his claims are easily debunked.
00:23Here are three of the biggest falsehoods.
00:24President Trump has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that if there is any way to fund these programs that are drying up now, that he will do it.
00:36The Speaker's first comment has to do with SNAP nutrition assistance.
00:40If there was any way to fund SNAP during the Democrat shutdown, you can be assured that your commander-in-chief would do it.
00:47There's $5 billion currently sitting in a contingency fund that the Trump administration claims it can't use because a government shutdown isn't the type of emergency the fund was created for.
00:59Democrats across the country sue them over this.
01:05By law, contingency fund can only flow when the underlying fund is flowing.
01:11So, for example, if today the Democrats say, oh, never mind, sorry, we'll open the government, and SNAP flows, Hurricane Melissa or one of the hurricanes hits,
01:21that's the contingency fund that we would use to send more money into the vulnerable communities that are harmed by a specific event like a hurricane.
01:32That brings us to false statement number two.
01:33They didn't file a lawsuit you saw to try to do it.
01:36Why?
01:37Because they wanted a talking point.
01:39They know that's a frivolous piece of litigation.
01:41They know what they're going to lose, but they also know it'll take many weeks or months to have that ultimately determined by a court.
01:47Democratic state attorneys general did file a lawsuit on Tuesday.
01:51Here we are three days later, and they already won.
01:54A judge ruled the Trump administration must use the money in the contingency fund to make SNAP last as long as possible.
01:59It's worth noting that based on how much the program costs the federal government,
02:03that's only about two weeks' worth of funding.
02:05Here's false statement number three.
02:07And what are the Democrats doing today?
02:09Where are the Democrats?
02:10Are they in the Senate today?
02:11No, they're out campaigning.
02:12While critical SNAP benefits run dry, the Democrats have skipped town.
02:16They've abandoned their post in the Senate.
02:18It's true.
02:19The Senate's out of town today, just like the House of Representatives.
02:22The thing is, Republicans hold majorities in both chambers of Congress, so they're the ones that set the schedule.
02:27It was Senate Majority Leader John Thune who decided not to schedule any votes today and send the chamber home for the weekend.
02:33Just like it's House Speaker Johnson who decided to keep the House out of session since September 19th.
02:39So Republicans can criticize Democrats all they want for voting against the continuing resolution and voting to keep the government closed.
02:46That's true.
02:47Thank you all for being here this morning.
02:48But if Congress isn't in D.C., it's because Republicans made it so.
02:51I'm Ray Bogan for Straight Hour News.
02:53For more unbiased reporting straight from our nation's capital, download the SAN app.
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