As the battle over a government shutdown raged over the week of March 10th, Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) was hilariously mocked online from a video he posted in 2023. The resurfaced clip showed the then-congressman condemning government shutdowns during former President Joe Biden’s time in office. The footage shows Sen. Schiff’s hypocrisy quite well. With the threat of a government shutdown looming, Sen. Schiff is now taking the opposite stance since the GOP is in charge and Trump is president, blaming them more than he was condemning a shutdown.
For reference, a shutdown occurs when Congress is unable to pass funding bills, halting non-essential operations and furloughing federal employees without pay. The shutdown was averted by a Continuing Resolution signed by President Donald Trump on March 15th with 54 Republican and 46 Democrat votes in the Senate and 217 and 213 in the House, respectively.
The video being shared across the internet shows then-congressmen Adam Schiff warning his constituents about the consequences of an imminent government shutdown in September 2023. A deal was necessary since Republicans controlled the House, while Democrats controlled both the Senate and the White House.
In the video, Sen. Schiff voices concerns about the shutdown’s impact on TSA employees, federal workers, and United States military service members who do not receive paychecks during a shutdown. Making that pearl-clutcher of a claim, the senator said, “Had the government shutdown, hundreds of thousands of people would not have gotten their paychecks. Federal employees would have been furloughed and sent home. Others deemed essential, like TSA workers, would have been forced to work and not get paid.”
Sen. Schiff has a different take now that President Donald Trump is back in office. In a new TikTok released by Sen. Schiff on March 13th, 2025, he claims the shutdown issue was solely the responsibility of Republicans, saying, “So is the government shutting down? Well, that depends on Donald Trump and the Republicans. They control the White House. They control the House. They control the Senate. It’s really up to them.”
Sen. Schiff’s statement is a gross oversimplification of the bipartisan negotiations that take place regarding funding disputes. Sen. Schiff claims that the Republican partisan resolution “changes all kinds of funding levels” and stripped Congress of its ability to overturn the tariffs Donald Trump recently enacted. In reality, the Democrats weren’t agreeing to common-sense reforms like cutting spending on what DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) has found is wasteful.
Critics online noted that under the Biden administration, Sen. Schiff and other Democrats had no issues using partisan budget measures to push their agenda. Social media was in a frenzy, quickly expressing disdain for Sen. Schiff’s hypocrisy. One user hilariously wrote in a post on X, “If you look in a dictionary for the meaning of ‘hypocrisy,’ you’ll see the face of Adam Schiff.”
"*" indicates required fields
Another user had a similar post on X and was fed up with the fear-mongering that Sen. Schiff is known for. They wrote, “Adam Schiff is the sleaziest liar in Congress, and I don’t know how Californians don’t see that! His favorite pastime is fear-mongering. Do they like to be frightened by lies from a man they elected to ‘represent’ them?”
Finally, an X account commented, “Can’t believe a word any DemocRAT says, especially Adam ‘Pencil Neck’ Schiff, a proven and serial liar.” Pencil Neck is the nickname hilariously assigned to Sen. Adam Schiff by President Donald Trump. Here’s the clip from 2023 showing the hypocrisy of Sen. Adam Schiff:
The United States narrowly avoided a shutdown after Congress passed new spending legislation. Even though the shutdown ultimately didn’t happen, Sen. Adam Schiff’s glaring hypocrisy remains unmistakably clear. His shifting narratives serve as a reminder of the political theatrics that continue to erode public trust in elected officials. Here is the post to TikTok that Sen. Schiff made on March 13th, 2025, see how he shifted:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video