WASHINGTON — This idea should have been shut down.
House Democrats struggled to attract eyeballs to a livestream meant to rally the party faithful over the government shutdown — which at times drew only a couple of hundred viewers, despite a cast featuring some of their most charismatic members and top influencers.
In what was originally supposed to be a 24-hour stream from 2 p.m. Tuesday to 2 p.m. Wednesday, House Democrats took turns trying to blame Republicans for the partial government shutdown, which began at 12 a.m. Wednesday.
But the GOP and White House quickly seized on the lackluster ratings.
“Just 400 people are watching and they’re currently trying different types of candy. ‘I want to thank so many of you who are tuning in today,’” National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) war room director Ben Petersen chided Tuesday afternoon, hours before the shutdown took effect.
“Also: Chat is disabled,” he noted.
Despite the best efforts of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), who put the livestream on his YouTube page, Democrats ended the round-the-clock bid after about 11-and-a-half hours.
By contrast, a rival White House feed showcasing past Democratic opposition to shutdowns peaked at more than 100,000 views.
“Meanwhile, [the White House] is schlonging Democrats on the viewer count,” White House Communications Director Steven Cheung chided.
A competing livestream of Senate Democrats — that spanned 40 minutes and was led by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) notched 90,000 views when it was live and has since garnered over 500,000 views.
By contrast, part one of the House Democrats’ livestream drew 24,000 total viewers as of Thursday morning.
House Democrats had hoped tagging in progressive influencers such as Jack Cocchiarella and Carlos Eduardo Espina could help juice their numbers, but even then, live viewership only peaked at around 1,000, Politico reported.
Jeffries’ team later claimed that the stream garnered more than 60,000 views when accounting for different platforms.
“As Leader Jeffries has consistently said and done, Democrats are in a more-is-more environment,” Jeffries spokesperson Christie Stephenson told Politico.
“Apparently for some, that means more is more snark and that’s their choice as to how they want to spend this pivotal moment.”
GOP operatives wasted little time pillorying Democrats over the livestream debacle.
“There are more people watching a weeknight WNBA game than the House Democrats’ livestream about their own shutdown. Party of 18% approval rating and sinking by the day,” chided Armani Gracia, communications director for Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), chided.
“First the selfies, now a livestream? Democrats are acting more like INFLUENCERS than lawmakers. They are MORE interested in chasing clicks than serving their constituents,” swiped Edgar Barrios, who works on House Speaker Mike Johnson’s rapid response team.
Politico reporter Adam Wren observed that “the shutdown livestreaming showed that while Democrats are clearly listening to a lot of people online urging them to fight, a lot of people online may not be listening to them.”
“There are more Democrats IN CONGRESS than there are people watching their cringe 24 hour livestream[.] Pack it up, the Dems have lost and the government hasn’t even shut down yet,” sniped the Washington Reporter’s Mathew Foldi.
On Wednesday, all but three Senate Democrats once again voted to block the advancement of a “clean” continuing resolution (CR) to reopen the government.
The clean CR cleared the House last month and had 55 votes in the Senate, which is a majority, but not enough to overcome the 60-vote threshold needed to break a Democratic filibuster.
Democrats have stood firm in their demands for GOP concessions on healthcare policy, such as reversing reforms to Medicaid and an extension of enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year.
Republicans have left open the possibility of addressing Affordable Care Act concerns after the shutdown is resolved, but have been adamant that it won’t be part of the solution to get Uncle Sam’s lights back on.
