{"id":20827,"date":"2026-04-01T16:48:40","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T16:48:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/hill-staffers-brace-for-their-bosss-tmz-moment\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T16:48:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T16:48:40","slug":"hill-staffers-brace-for-their-bosss-tmz-moment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/hill-staffers-brace-for-their-bosss-tmz-moment\/","title":{"rendered":"Hill staffers brace for their boss\u2019s \u2018TMZ moment\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

TMZ has launched an effort to shame members of Congress into ending their recess early and funding the Department of Homeland Security \u2014 and many congressional aides are quietly delighting in the celebrity gossip site\u2019s interest in covering Congress.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am super stoked,\u201d said one Hill staffer granted anonymity to speak candidly. \u201cI think a lot of offices, particularly ones who aren\u2019t in major media markets, are in for a rude awakening.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy attitude is any new press that forces members to be sharper and for comms staffers to be more nimble is a good thing,\u201d the staffer added.<\/p>\n

Staffers whose bosses end up splashed across the infamous website are likely feeling less stoked about the spottings. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) was seen by a TMZ tipster at Disney World<\/a> over the weekend, and Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) was caught on camera at a Las Vegas casino<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Garcia said he was visiting his father who lives in Las Vegas, while Graham followed up Tuesday with photos of himself in his home state.<\/p>\n

The publication has been soliciting photos of lawmakers anywhere but Washington as the DHS impasse hurtles toward day 50. Other shots the site has obtained include Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) at a Florida airport<\/a>, Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) at his son\u2019s basketball game<\/a> and a slew of House Republicans \u2014 including Reps. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.), John McGuire (R-Va.) and David Rouzer (R-N.C.) \u2014 roaming around Scotland<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Van Orden said in a Wednesday X post<\/a> that he was participating in \u201chigh level\u201d meetings with the Irish government.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to thank @TMZ for pointing out that even though our US Senate colleagues can\u2019t figure out how to vote to fund our entire government, and that the House voted 4 times to do so, that I will not stop working for the 3rd congressional district of Wisconsin and every American,\u201d Van Orden said.<\/p>\n

A second Hill staffer, also granted anonymity to speak candidly, said \u201cthere are definitely conversations on how to engage and prepare for your boss\u2019s TMZ moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

While TMZ has long had a footprint<\/a> in Washington, founder and executive producer Harvey Levin said in a statement Monday he is redoubling coverage of national political players \u2014 and said the ongoing DHS shutdown was an important moment to pounce.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast week, we interviewed a TSA worker<\/a> who is struggling to survive without a paycheck, and it outraged us so much we wanted to use our platforms to show how Congress \u2014 Dems AND Republicans \u2014 have betrayed us,\u201d Levin said. \u201cWe spontaneously 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShort story \u2014 our D.C. presence will sometimes be fun, sometimes intensely serious,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TMZ has launched an effort to shame members of Congress into ending their recess early and funding the Department of Homeland Security \u2014 and many congressional aides are quietly delighting in the celebrity gossip site\u2019s interest in covering Congress. \u201cI am super stoked,\u201d said one Hill staffer granted anonymity to speak candidly. \u201cI think a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20827\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}