An Unlikely Source Is Shaming Lawmakers With Their Mid-Shutdown Vacation Photos

An unlikely source is making members of congress squirm as they enjoy a spring recess while a partial government shutdown continues to drag on.

Last week, TMZ founder Harvey Levin called on the public to send in photos of politicians they see vacationing while federal employees continue to work without pay and Americans deal with disruptions of all kinds.

“We want to show what they are doing at your expense,” he said during last Thursday’s episode of “TMZ Live.”

“Maybe they’re on a cruise somewhere, or in Hawaii or some other great place,” Levin added during Monday’s episode. “We want those pictures. And the point of this is to show how fed up the American people are, because we are.”

It didn’t take long for photos to start pouring in, nor for TMZ to put the lounging legislators on blast.

The outlet, which is known for breaking celebrity stories at an almost-clairvoyant pace, published photos of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) frolicking around Disney World with a searing headline that read, “Lindsey Graham Living in Fantasyland as Government Shutdown Drags On.”

Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) was captured at a casino bar at the Las Vegas luxury resort, the Fontainebleau. Sens. Bernie Sander (I-Vt.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) were all snapped while fleeing Washington, D.C., as the bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security remains in the lurch.

Reacting to the backlash, both Democrats and Republicans blamed their rival party for the historically long shutdown, which has caused grueling airport delays and left DHS employees without paychecks for over a month now.

Graham told TMZ any delay in funding DHS was on the Democrats while Garcia said he didn’t mind the tabloid’s tactics and that Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) “should have never sent us all home.”

Levin wasn’t falling for the partisan blame game, however, telling viewers on Monday’s “TMZ Live” Congress was “insulting our intelligence by thinking, ‘Oh, we can get over on them by blaming it on the other party.’”

“It’s not the other party, it’s both parties, and we are kind of sick of the way they are patronizing us.”

In a statement to HuffPost, Levin said his newsroom came up with the idea to “juxtapose members of Congress on their Spring Break against federal workers who are losing their homes, their cars, their livelihoods” after interviewing a TSA agent who was in dire straits without a paycheck.

“It outraged us so much, we wanted to use our platforms to show how Congress — Dems AND Republicans — have betrayed us.”

Following unprecedented levels of public pressure, President Donald Trump directed DHS to use funds from last years Republican-backed super-spending bill to pay TSA employees. On Monday, representatives for DHS confirmed “most” workers had received backpay making up “at least two full paychecks.”