Watch Mike Johnson’s latest—and saddest—GOP shutdown excuse

On Thursday, Speaker Mike Johnson unveiled his latest gambit to deflect blame for the GOP’s disastrous government shutdown by appealing to football fans and pinning air travel delays on the Democratic Party.

“We are rounding into a holiday season, as we all know, and we’re in the middle of the height of the football season,” Johnson said. “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.” 

“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?”

That is a stretch. Since taking office, President Donald Trump’s crack team of former TV personalities has presided over a decline in U.S. air travel reliability. In the wake of the GOP shutdown, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has threatened unpaid federal workers in a desperate effort to cover the holes created by the administration’s own downsizing of the federal workforce.