The propagandists at CNN are working desperately to distract from the Pandora’s box of woe that Democrats have opened with their shutdown of the federal government, a poorly thought-out move that is already blowing up in their faces.

Only two days in and already the “Schumer shutdown” is a total disaster for Democrats who thought that they could damage President Donald J. Trump by blaming it on him, but instead have badly lost the messaging battle.

Now they’re turning to their friends in the media with a manufactured “scandal” that relies on some furloughed federal employees who are claiming that their out-of-office email replies have been manipulated to blame Democrats for the shutdown.

(Video: CNN)

“Multiple furloughed workers from the Department of Education had out-of-office messages blaming Democrats for the government shutdown automatically sent from their email accounts without their consent or knowledge, according to four sources familiar with the situation,” CNN reported on Thursday, citing the now-standard anonymous sources that are a feature of nearly all anti-Trump reporting.

“It is compelled speech and feels like a setup,” an unnamed Education Department employee told CNN, with another employee dramatically saying that they felt “completely violated and concerned” about the alleged messages, which could have “ramifications” for their careers and reputations.

CNN identified the aggrieved workers as current employees who were granted anonymity because they fear retribution.

Also citing disgruntled furloughed employees was NBC News, which has four reporters on the case to quote five anonymous government employees – who may or may not exist – who claim that the “wording was altered from how they originally had composed them.”

“None of us consented to this. And it’s written in the first person, as if I’m the one conveying this message, and I’m not. I don’t agree with it. I don’t think it’s ethical or legal. I think it violates the Hatch Act,” the anonymous worker said, referring to the 1939 law prohibiting federal employees from engaging in partisan political activity.

“I took the statement that they sent us earlier in the week to use. And I pasted it on top of that — basically has a standard out-of-office,” a Department of Education employee said. “They went in and manipulated my out-of-office reply. I guess they’re now making us all guilty of violating the Hatch Act.”

The CNN report reeks of a lawfare setup in that it quotes Trump-hating former George W. Bush White House ethics lawyer Richard Painter, who said that “a number” of laws might have been violated.

According to the outlet, “He specifically pointed toward one law prohibiting political lobbying using taxpayer funds and another that prohibits government coercion of political activity – which is a criminal statute.”

“If you coerce someone to send a message, let’s just say they say, ‘You need to send a message blaming the Democrats for the shutdown, or you get fired,’ I think that’s a violation,” Painter said.

“But then let’s go to the next step and say, well, instead of doing that, they just seize control of your email, because you’re out of the office, and you’re not allowed to go in your email, and they put out an email with your name on it, isn’t that coercion? I think that’s coercion,” he added.

In another sign of a manufactured narrative, multiple other outlets soon jumped onboard with ABC News reporting that “The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) encouraged federal employees across the government — including at the Departments of Labor, Justice and Education — to create out-of-office email messages denouncing ‘Democrat Senators’ for causing the government shutdown,” citing “multiple sources,” all of them anonymous.

The Office of Management and Budget encouraged federal employees across the government to create out-of-office email messages denouncing “Democrat Senators” for causing the government shutdown, multiple sources have confirmed to @ABC News. https://t.co/i6lIZfDYj7

— ABC News (@ABC) October 3, 2025

CNN also featured one of the ratings challenged cable “news” network’s favorite guests, virulently racist Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), to push the Hatch Act violation angle, giving Democrats something to pound their desks about in a classic tactic of distraction as they struggle to contain the growing perception that they shut down the federal government to force taxpayers to fund free healthcare for illegal aliens.

“I think they’re being a lot more illegal in their messaging. The first thing that I wanted to know was, how can this not be a violation of the Hatch Act in some way? Right?” Crockett said during a Wednesday appearance on CNN’s “The Source,” priming the pump.

“The email reminds those who reach out to Department of Education employees that we cannot respond because Senate Democrats are refusing to vote for a clean CR and fund the government,” Deputy Assistant Secretary for Communications Madi Biedermann said in a statement to CNN.

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Chris Donaldson

Staff Writer

Chris Donaldson is an ordinary American who is concerned about rampant corruption as well as the ongoing attacks on our way of life by those who have contempt for our hard-earned freedoms. A Navy veteran, he has been a frequent contributor to conservative websites and resides in Florida.

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