Top Republican spotted 'living it up' on beach as shutdown drags on: report

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Raw Story

April 3, 2026 10:31PM ET


House Majority Leader Steve Scalise was spotted vacationing in Alabama as the government shutdown continues, according to photos obtained by TMZ.

The Louisiana Republican, the second-highest ranking member of the House behind Speaker Mike Johnson, was seen near Orange Beach during the current congressional recess.

TMZ reported Friday that Scalise was photographed walking out of a local seafood market with a bag of food while accompanied by a two-person security detail and a driver. The outlet described the MAGA lawmaker as “living it up on the Floribama shore” during what it characterized as a two-week break from Washington, D.C.

Scalise is among several members of Congress who have been spotted away from the Capitol during the shutdown, as lawmakers fled D.C. for the recess – without fully funding the government.

Read more: https://www.rawstory.com/vacation-shutdown/

---

Link to TMZ article - Rep. Steve Scalise This Shutdown's a Beach!!!



Last fall, he as House Majority Leader, along with SOH Mikie, kept the House on vacation for 7 weeks during a shutdown, refusing to do any legislative work, and even refusing to swear in newly-elected (after a special election) AZ Rep. Adelita Grijalva, who replaced her father, (D) stalwart Raúl Grijalva, who had passed away.

[Norrrm]

1. During COVID, NJ shut down the beaches. Christie & family had their own private beach.

Last edited Sat Apr 4, 2026, 09:24 AM - Edit history (1)

[AverageOldGuy]

2. My wife is an Alabama girl

The FloriBama coast is known throughout the region as "REDNECK RIVIERA."

[Bo Zarts]

6. And the Florabama Lounge is famous for a yearly "mullet toss."

Full disclosure: I have participated in that famous beach bar’s mullet event.

[displacedvermoter]

3. Dirtbag who was at death's door, and survived,

and learned absolutely nothing from his trauma. He gained no empathy, no changed perspectives or voting positions on anything, including guns or health care.

Selfish jerk...

[BumRushDaShow]

4. In fact, contrary to how George Wallace finally "saw the light" after his gun-related ordeal

Sleazy Scalise not only doubled down, but tripled down on the craven cruelty.

[Norrrm]

8. Charlie Kirk was even ok with his own assassination.

Charlie Kirk was even ok with his own assassination.

Charlie Kirk: “It’s worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment”

Link to tweet

[cbabe]

9. Despite Being Gunned Down at Baseball Practice and Saved by a Lesbian Cop, Rep. Steve Scalise Is Still Pro-Gun and Anti-

https://www.vogue.com/article/steve-scalise-gunned-down-saved-lesbian-cop-still-pro-gun-anti-lgbt

Despite Being Gunned Down at Baseball Practice and Saved by a Lesbian Cop, Rep. Steve Scalise Is Still Pro-Gun and Anti-LGBTQ

MICHELLE RUIZ
October 9, 2017

In June, Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise was shot at a congressional baseball practice and saved, in part, by Capitol Police officer Crystal Griner, who is a lesbian in a same-sex marriage. But despite his own harrowing experience—Scalise is still using walkers after suffering a shattered femur and serious damage to his hip and pelvis—the conservative Republican congressman remains pro-gun and anti-LGBTQ.

On Sunday’s Meet the Press, Scalise made clear that neither being shot himself nor the recent Las Vegas mass shooting could change his mind about gun rights. “Don’t try to put new laws in place that don’t fix these problems,” Scalise, the House majority whip, said. “They only make it harder for law-abiding citizens to own a gun.” Scalise went on to cite the Founding Fathers’ strong belief in the right to bear arms (curiously, though, no mention of the Third Amendment and their related belief that citizens should not have to quarter soldiers), and when asked by host Chuck Todd if the Second Amendment should be seen as “unlimited,” Scalise nodded: “It is.”

… more …

[Deuxcents]

26. Thanks for this post..too many forget the brave cop Scalise could care less about

[Botany]

15. Isn't he the one who a black lesbian law enforcement personnel saved his life by going after the person ..

…. who was shooting @ him and he still doesn’t support black, LGBT, and women’s rights?

[CincyDem]

5. Call me crazy but there are so many reasons to be repulsed by this guy and...

…I don’t think sensationalizing him on a grocery shopping trip in an area that’s a 2-3 hour drive from his district as “living it up” warrants the bandwidth used to post it.

He looks like he just got a call from his wife who told him “don’t forget the tartar sauce”. He’s looks like he’s thinking “shit, they were out so now I gotta stop at Publix too…I hate Publix”.

Fly to Cancun during a winter blackout…yeah
Boondoggle to Europe for museum tours with the family…living it up.
Running to the store for 2# of breaded catfish and a pound of boiled shrimp, maybe some salmon, for a Friday home cooked dinner during lent…not to much.

His position on just about every issue of importance to this country and democracy…yeah, he’s really f’cking deplorable. Grocery shopping ain’t one of them.

IMHO.

[onenote]

7. Yep. But par for the course for Raw Story.

[BumRushDaShow]

11. "Grocery shopping ain't one of them."

He is the HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER and should be BACK in Washington with the rest of his loser GOP collegues debating and/or voting on the DHS funding bill that passed UNANIMOUSLY in the Senate, to at least begin to complete what was supposed to be THIS FISCAL YEAR'S appropriations, that had LAPSED October 1, 2025.

They were OFF for 7 weeks.

REPEAT - 7 weeks last fall - from Sept. 19 - Nov. 12, 2025.

And that was after they were off for "summer recess" for 4 weeks - Aug. 3 - Sep. 1, 2025.

NOT IN SESSION, with no legislation, no swear-ins of our (D) AZ Rep. who was elected after a special election, no hearings, during what became the beginning of this bizarre and extended-over-and-over shutdown.

But interesting that you're okay with not calling them out and shaming them.

Got it.

[CincyDem]

18. I agree with you 100% on each of those issues and he's deplorable.

Grocery shopping doesn’t exemplify any of them. It’s a tan suit issue.

[BumRushDaShow]

23. It actually wasn't the headline

This was something that TMZ advertised - requesting that if anyone spots these rogue members of Congress anywhere, to send them pics - Send Us Congress Vacay Pics!!!

CNN

TMZ’s founder channels national anger with Washington

PUBLISHED Apr 3, 2026, 3:54 PM ET

TMZ’s founder Harvey Levin knows what the people want to see. Usually, that’s celebrity drama and misbehavior by athletes. As the site flooded the internet this week with photos of lawmakers on vacation while Congress is in recess in the middle of a punishing partial government shutdown, it was clear he once again had his finger on the pulse.

To Levin, the photos captured something that endless stories about the partial shutdown — now the longest in the country’s history — could not. “I think you grab people where — you meet them where they want to be, and here they want these images, and the images tell the story for them, and that’s what we’re doing right now,” Levin said in an interview on CNN’s “The Story Is with Elex Michaelson.”

The flood of photos began with Sen. Lindsey Graham on vacation at Disney World in Orlando holding a bubble wand inspired by “The Little Mermaid.” Photos of other lawmakers — either in their home districts or on vacation during the two-week spring break recess — followed.

Levin said he issued a call for TMZ’s audience to send in photos after interviewing a Transportation Security Agency worker who was not getting paid because of the partial shutdown, caused by disagreements in Congress over immigration enforcement reform.

(snip)

NYT TMZ Sics Its Tipsters on a New Breed of Celebrity Villain: Members of Congress

The Guardian - TMZ tracks US lawmakers vacationing amid the partial government shutdown

The Hill - TMZ wants photos of lawmakers vacationing ‘at your expense’ amid TSA shutdown

If people can't figure out what the strategy is here that HELPS our cause, instead obsessing over the "messenger outlet" reporting on what one entity is doing to generate outrage at what is going on, then there is not much I can do other than to keep digging through finding news that gets blanked out by Taylor Swift, "March Madness", and Blake Lively.

[displacedvermoter]

20. Agree, at this point he could be working in a

soup kitchen for street addicts and donating platelets once a month in an AIDS clinic, while tithing NPR, and he would still be a dirt bag in my eyes. But him doing a little grocery shopping in Alabama, instead of being in Washington trying to get a handle on this mess we are in, is kinda deserved but not especially headline worthy.

[Baitball Blogger]

10. In all fairness,

who vacations in Alabama?

[TBF]

12. Lots of folks in the south - Gulf Shores/Orange are in Alabama -

and just up the highway a bit are Pensacola and Destin in Florida. I've been to the area and the beaches are great. More lowkey than jetting off to Cancun a la Ted Cruz. He probably figured no one would even notice.

[JoseBalow]

14. Fugitives

[generalbetrayus]

21. That was my first thought.

[nuxvomica]

13. That's how he looks when "living it up"?

Sad.

[Doodles]

16. Oh, darn.

Just got back to Iowa from winter in Orange Beach Thursday. We could have taken Steve to Happy Hour. Ewwww…

[kairos12]

17. Let Them Eat Vacation Seafood. POS. Vile scumbag.

[Wild blueberry]

19. Congress, GET BACK TO WORK!

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

[LilElf70]

22. Why do people like this

Last edited Sat Apr 4, 2026, 04:02 PM - Edit history (1)

even get a "Spring Break"?

As I grew up, I was told "Spring Break' always applied to students. Not one time did I every hear of employed citizens getting a "Spring Break". Of all the jobs I had, I never got a "spring break". Imagine if everyone working person received a spring break at the same time? It would be a disaster.

So why do the losers in Congress get a "Spring break, along with all the other breaks they get throughout the year?

Oops.... look what I found. Congress works less than half the year, with the House averaging 147 legislative days annually.

These people don't have a job. THEY HAVE A POSITION!!!!!

[ampm]

24. What about the Scotland Tour

This time, 30 went to Scotland on our dime

[Hope22]

25. No chance that meal will fit on the $3 plan.

These guys take the money and don’t pay other federal employees, go on vacation while the war rages and troops are dying! The lowest of life. The future of this country is in their hands…..pitiful!