Florida Republican Senator Rick Scott was called out for his hypocrisy after he proudly showed off a photo of himself at a Disney park amid TMZ's efforts to put members of Congress on blast for taking vacations during the partial government shutdown.
The shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is now the longest in history at more than 50 days and stretches on without an agreement between the House and the Senate now that lawmakers have left Washington for Easter break; neither chamber is set to return to Washington until the week of April 13.
All the while, TSA agents are currently working unpaid and struggling amid the affordability crisis. Late last month, President Donald Trump announced that he would deploy ICE agents to U.S. airports to address long delays, but wait times have not lessened.
Worse still, more than 500 TSA agents have left their positions since DHS funding lapsed and their payments were paused. Trump recently directed that TSA workers be paid and the Department of Homeland Security has been issuing direct deposits.
Amid all this, Scott shared a photo of himself to X along with the following message:
"Hey TMZ. Yes, I’m at Disney with my grandkids. Should we be in DC? Yes! But I don't get to make that decision."
You can see his post below.
Scott's message to TMZ coincided with its call for people to submit photos of members of Congress on vacation during Easter break as the partial government shutdown reaches historic lengths.
TMZ said in a video announcement that "if anybody goes to Disney World with their family for spring break or goes anywhere on vacation and you see any of the 535 members of Congress, take a picture and send it to us at TMZ."
The outlet promised that its staff "will post that picture on our website, on our social media, and we will put it on our television shows" because "we want to show what they are doing at your expense and we want everybody to hear that and we are waiting for those pictures."
To make matters worse, Scott previously pledged in a piece for The Washington Examiner that he would not go to Disney parks, calling them "woke central":
“Disney used to be the happiest place on Earth, now it’s just woke central. It’s on the losing side of an issue that the majority of families, regardless of political ideology, agree with."
“Disney is mad that Florida will not allow teachers to talk to five-year-olds about sex. Florida families couldn’t disagree more."
“I’ve enjoyed taking my children and grandchildren to Disney World, and I really had no problems with Disney in my eight years as Florida’s governor. But now, just like many huge corporations in America, it’s going woke. It’s really a shame."
“Maybe we should thank Disney for showing us who it really is. I’ll tell you one thing — I won’t be going back or watching Disney+ anytime soon, and I bet a lot more parents and grandparents are making that same choice.”
He even went on Fox News at the time to share that he "got rid of" his Disney+ streaming service and was "not planning" to take his family to Disney parks in the future.
Scott was swiftly called out.
Scott was criticized just days after his Senate colleague, South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham, made an attempt to repair his manly image after he was photographed at Disney World holding a bubble wand.
In remarks to TMZ, Graham claimed that he met with members of the Trump administration officials in South Florida on Friday before heading to Orlando to “meet up with some friends” the following day.
Shortly afterward, Graham posted a picture of himself with a shotgun and said he "spent some time breaking clays” in Edgefield County, South Carolina, adding that it "doesn't get much better than that." Critics saw through his act pretty quickly.
