White House changes voicemail during shutdown to blame Democrats

The White House’s public comment telephone line changed its outgoing phone message during the shutdown to blame the Democrats for not making a deal that would keep the government funded and running.

When calling (202) 456-1111 the following message plays:

%shareLinks-quote="Thank you for calling the White House. 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, due to this obstruction, the government is shut down." type="quote" author="" authordesc=""%

The government shutdown is now entering its second day, and each party has blamed the other for the situation.

Republicans refer to it as the "Schumer Shutdown," to place the blame on New York Democratic Senator Charles Schumer.

The question now is if the federal employees that staff the White House are violating the Hatch Act form 1939 that prohibits them from acting in a bipartisan manner.