White House comment line attacks Democrats for the government shutdown
Donald Trump's White House sunk to a new level of petty on Saturday, as the United States government shutdown.
Callers dialing into the publicly available White House comments line -- at 202.456.1111 -- are greeted with a recorded away message. An unrecognizable female voice politely explains that the government is shut down because Democrats are holding it "hostage."
Listen for yourself. This is a recording we captured ourselves when dialing the White House comment line shortly after 6:00 p.m. ET on Saturday.
"Unfortunately, we cannot answer your call today because Congressional Democrats are holding government funding -- including funding for our troops and other national security priorities -- hostage to an unrelated immigration debate," the recording states.
"Due to this obstruction, the government is shut down."
It's not clear if this message is even legal, since it's a case of the White House using one of the government's public information channels -- in this case, the phone line citizens use to call in and leave comments -- to attack political opponents.
One thing is clear, however, based on the public's response on social media: This continued antagonism toward Congressional Democrats isn't going to bring about a constructive end to the shutdown.
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Topics Donald Trump Politics
Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
