Rep. John James tried to spin his tropical getaway scandal—and somehow found a way to make the poorly-timed vacay look even more ridiculous.
The Michigan Republican was caught on Thursday lounging in Turks and Caicos as Washington remained locked in a brutal government shutdown now dragging into its seventh week. Instead of scrambling to negotiate a deal, James, 44, was snapped outside, dining with his wife while chaos back home continued to hammer travelers and federal workers alike.
Then came the congressman’s attempt to clean up his PR nightmare. And that’s when things really fell apart.
The day after the photos surfaced, James jumped into damage-control mode—posting what appeared to be proof that he was back in Michigan. On Friday morning, he shared a photo of himself at a Detroit Tigers game with his kids, captioning it “Eat ‘em up,” and tagging the team.
There was just one problem: the image wasn’t new.
Users quickly clocked that the field featured postseason markings—something that would only appear in October. Even worse, the Tigers’ first home game of the season was against the St. Louis Cardinals, scheduled for today at 1:10 p.m., making it impossible for the photo to have been taken when James claimed it was.
Undeterred, James tried again later that day—this time posting a video of himself at a gun range, firing off rounds and boasting about protecting Second Amendment rights for his constituents.
“ENJOYed some time at the range… because in Michigan, we don’t just talk about freedom, we practice it!” he wrote.
That, too, backfired almost instantly, as users flooded the replies pointing out that the lush, leafy trees in the background didn’t match Michigan’s current early-season landscape.
Users also pointed out that not only was James not at the range that day—he didn’t even bother finding new footage.
It seemingly slipped the congressman’s mind that the exact same video had already been posted seven months earlier by the gun range itself as part of a promotional clip.
The Daily Beast has reached out to James’ team for comment.
James now joins a growing list of lawmakers caught enjoying themselves while the country grinds through a shutdown. Dozens of lawmakers were spotted on a potentially taxpayer-funded congressional delegation trip to Scotland during the crisis.
And he’s not the only one who tried to scramble after getting caught.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, 70, faced similar backlash after photos emerged of him riding Space Mountain at Disneyland on Monday while federal workers went unpaid. Days later, Graham followed the same script and posted images of himself back home in South Carolina, shooting clay pigeons—telling TMZ he had already returned to his constituents.
To James’ credit, he has backed a proposal to withhold congressional pay during the shutdown. But that gesture is doing little to blunt criticism as conditions in his home state worsen.
Michigan has been hit hard. Roughly 1,300 workers have filed for unemployment since the shutdown began, according to the White House. Additionally, around 56,000 federal workers are either furloughed or working without pay.
Among them are TSA agents, whose growing number of callouts has triggered airport delays and cancellations nationwide, turning routine travel into a logistical nightmare.
All of this is unfolding as lawmakers remain deadlocked.
Republicans and Democrats have spent weeks floating proposals with little progress. On Wednesday, House Republicans pitched a plan to adopt a previously approved Senate funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security while simultaneously seeking to fast-track separate legislation to boost funding for immigration enforcement.
Negotiations remain stalled, with Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, 75, blaming Republicans for the impasse and pointing to what he described as “the deep division and dysfunction among House Republicans” as the force prolonging the shutdown.
