Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Thursday defended the Trump administration for using official agency websites to politicize the government shutdown, saying the departments are just stating an “objective truth” about who bears the blame for the budget impasse.

A number of departments — including State, Justice and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) — have posted messages on their homepages saying Democrats bear the sole responsibility for the stalemate.

Critics have charged that those messages are in direct violation of the Hatch Act, which prohibits the use of taxpayer funds to advance partisan political goals — a charge Johnson rejected out of hand.

Asked specifically about the HUD’s website, which says “the radical left in Congress shut down the government,” the Speaker said there’s no denying the veracity of that message, since almost every Democrat in both chambers voted against the Republicans’ short-term spending bill to keep the government open.

"What the HUD website........

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