Jeffries tells Lawler to ‘keep your mouth shut’ as shutdown sparks Capitol Hill confrontations

The National Hockey League played seven games in its young 2025-2026 season by the end of the day last Wednesday. The contests featured a grand total of two fights. 

The government shutdown had run for eight days by the end of the day on that Wednesday. And the now lengthy shutdown sparked two extraordinary verbal brawls in the halls of Congress between lawmakers.

NHL referees Gord Dwyer and Mitch Dunning worked the Washington Capitals/Boston Bruins tilt Wednesday night in DC. Perhaps the House and Senate Sergeants at Arms could have summoned Dwyer and Dunning up to Capitol Hill to dole out a few ten-minute misconducts beforehand.

“You’re embarrassing yourself right now!” hollered House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., at Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y.

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“The only embarrassment here is you!” thundered Lawler at Jeffries.

Tempers exploded as Lawler lay in wait outside the House Radio/TV Gallery Studio for a shutdown smackdown after Jeffries concluded his now-daily press conference. 

“You’re not going to talk to me and talk over me when you don’t want to hear what I’m going to say!” yelled an animated Jeffries at Lawler, jabbing his index finger toward his colleagues chest but never poking him. 

“Oh, I’m listening,” said Lawler.

“So just keep your mouth shut!” shouted the usually cool Jeffries. 

There were multiple rounds of vocal fisticuffs between Members and Congressional leaders.

Sens. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., and Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., summoned the press to the hallway outside the office of House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to complain about the shutdown and criticize the Speaker for not swearing-in Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva, D-Ariz., more than two weeks after her election. Johnson then confronted the Arizona senators. And Lawler was nearby, serving as “fourth man in.”

“This is absurd,” seethed an exasperated Johnson.

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“This is the longest the House has gone…” interrupted Gallego.

“Do you want me to answer the question?” shot back Johnson.

“You’re not actually answering the question,” countered Gallego.

The multiple rounds of brawls in the halls between lawmakers were nearly unprecedented in Congress. The shutdown smackdowns featured arguments about health care. Lawler waved around legislation focused on the Democrats’ push during the shutdown: a package to extend Obamacare subsidies.

“If you believe in it so much!” chided Lawler, with a rhetorical uppercut. 

“Bro, do you understand math?” counterpunched Jeffries.

Tensions are spiking at the Capitol. Yours truly asked Johnson about Lawler confronting Jeffries and his decision to step out of the Speaker’s Office to engage Kelly and Gallego. I noted to the Speaker that if the House was in session, there may be fistfights in the hallways.

“Are you concerned and is it incumbent upon you as the Speaker to try to lower this temperature?” I asked.

Johnson added that the contretemps “concerns me.” He added that he wanted to “restore civility to the institution.”

“Let’s have policy disputes. But not make it personal. This gets personal. Emotions are high. People are upset. I’m upset. I’m a very patient man. But I am very angry right now because this is dangerous stuff. And so is it better for them to be physically separated right now? It probably is.” said Johnson. 

Lawmakers aren’t the only ones raging. Thousands of federal workers are fuming at the shutdown. The administration is now firing federal workers. 

“Right now, many families are paying the price for political gridlock that they didn’t cause,” said American Federation of Government Employees President Everett Kelley.

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Rep. Sarah Elfreth, D-Md., represents 44,000 federal employees in her district near Washington, DC. She notes that Maryland has lost 15,000 federal jobs since President Trump took office in January. 

“I believe that (the firings) are not only unethical and immoral, but illegal for him to be RIF-ing people during a shutdown. There’s no new authority granted to the President or OMB during a shutdown,” said Elfreth. “I don’t believe in negotiating by threat. It also shows that I think they have the weaker hand and that they’re losing the PR battle nationally to resort to threats.” 

While the shutdown is the main event, the undercard is a fight between Democrats and Johnson over Grijalva to succeed her late father, Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz. The elder Grijalva died in March after a battle with cancer.

“I can’t hire staff. We don’t have an office,” said Grijalva “So it’s very much second-class citizen feeling for me.”

Democrats have tried on multiple occasions to compel the House to swear-in Grijalva during brief, pro forma sessions where the body gavels in and gavels out after just a few seconds. Once in office, Grijalva would provide the crucial 218th signature to go over the head of the Speaker and force the House to vote on a measure to release the Epstein files.

“Get your people in and stop covering up for the pedophiles,” shouted Gallego at Johnson during their confrontation in the corridor.

“That’s ridiculous,” responded Johnson. 

“There’s nobody covering up for pedophiles,” chirped Lawler from the back of the scrum. “So knock it the hell off.”

Johnson denies the Grijalva holdup is about the Epstein files. 

“We’ll schedule it, I guess, as soon as she wants. It has nothing to do with it,” said Johnson. 

But Grijalva wrote to the Speaker last week demanding the House swear her in immediately. And the House still hasn’t sworn her in.

Circumstances were different this spring when the House GOP majority dwindled to a net seat of one. Republicans needed as many votes as they could muster to pass parliamentary frameworks for the Big, Beautiful Bill. Johnson swore-in Reps. Randy Fine, R-Fla., and Jimmy Patronis, R-Fla., a day after they won special elections.

“These guys worked hard and they earned the position,” said Johnson when he met with them back in April. “These gentlemen are going to come in and help us deliver the America First agenda.” 

Johnson noted that swearing-in Fine and Patronis made “the margin a little more comfortable” for House Republicans.

So Johnson is keeping the House out of session for now. House Democrats are returning to Capitol Hill this week to make a point of Johnson keeping the House out of session during the shutdown. Regardless, pouring everyone back into the Capitol would likely trigger the Congressional equivalent of a line brawl. 

There are unwritten rules about hockey fights. You don’t sucker punch someone. You don’t knee your opponent. You generally square off in a fight with someone in your same weight class. In hockey, both sides warm up on their own side of the red line before the game and between periods. Violation of that code might trigger a big brawl.

Lawmakers from both sides seemingly left their own side of the rink to pick fights with the other side. Gallego and Kelly outside the Speaker’s Office. Lawler outside Jeffries’ news conference.

But lawmakers are apparently ignoring these unwritten rules. The government shutdown soon enters its third week and everyone is dropping their gloves.