Sarah McBride, Ted Lieu troll Stephen Miller by looking for him behind a tiny Capitol door

Ahead of the U.S. government entering its third week of shutdown — and with most House Republicans at home after Speaker Mike Johnson sent members of the body back to their states — two Democratic lawmakers decided to turn frustration into farce. 

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In a social media video that quickly went viral after being posted on Wednesday, Delaware Congresswoman Sarah McBride and California Congressman Ted Lieu wander through the empty halls of the Capitol, calling out for missing Republicans. “Steve Scalise, where are you?” Lieu shouts, scanning the deserted visitor center and checking behind a vacant desk. “House Republicans, where are you?” 

Lieu encounters McBride, who joins in, quipping, “There are far more tourists around the Capitol than House Republicans.” The two walk past statues and escalators, coming up empty, until McBride spots a curious door barely 2 feet tall. 

“They might be meeting with Stephen Miller in here,” she says with mock gravity, then bends down and opens the tiny door herself. 

“Nope, I don't see any House Republicans there either,” Lieu replies after surveying the entryway himself. 

The tiny door and the bigger metaphor 

That miniature portal isn’t a prop. It’s one of the Capitol’s Meigs miniatures, small service doors built in the mid-1800s by engineer Montgomery C. Meigs as part of an early plumbing and fire-suppression system. According to the website for the architect of the Capitol, after a Christmas Eve fire destroyed the Library of Congress in 1851, Meigs installed a network of valves and pipes concealed behind these knee-high hatches, which workers used to access hidden reservoirs of water. 

Today, those 30-inch doors remain situated along hallways, remnants of a long-gone era when the Capitol was lit by gas lamps and washed down daily with buckets. They are strange, charming, and, in McBride and Lieu’s video, perfectly symbolic. 

By invoking Miller, the longtime Trump adviser known for shaping some of the administration’s most extreme policies, McBride and Lieu add another layer to the joke. The door may be tiny, but so, in the public imagination, is Miller. 

Recently, Miller's height has even become the subject of memes. After New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez joked online that Miller “looks like” he’s 4’10”, he went on Fox News to explain that he’s closer to 5’10”, adding fuel to the situation and drawing jokes on social media. Many people’s takeaway was that, whatever Miller’s exact stature, the visual works. 

From absurdity to accountability 

After a humorous start, and ahead of reaching the tiny door, Lieu and McBride’s video gives way to something darker about halfway through. As they pass a protest sign that reads “Release the files,” Lieu says, “Maybe one reason they’re having this shutdown is that they don’t want to swear in Adelita Grijalva, who would be the last signature to get the Epstein files released.” 

Johnson has so far refused to swear in Rep.-elect Grijalva, who won a special election in Arizona on September 23. The newly elected lawmaker has pledged to sign a discharge petition that would force the House to vote on the release of files connected to Jeffrey Epstein, the late convicted pedophile. 

McBride, seemingly referring to Republicans who have quietly resisted supporting the files' release, responds, “They’ve been acting mighty suspicious for a while. Probably a part of it.” 

“This shutdown, all orchestrated by Trump, it's not going to distract us here from continuing to pursue justice for survivors of the Epstein sex trafficking,” a nearby colleague of Lieu and McBride, California Rep. Dave Min, jumps in to say. 

“Damn right,” McBride answers. 

Serious business 

What makes the heavier and lighter moment in the Democratic lawmakers' video land is the reality of American life. 

The ongoing shutdown has gutted federal health and science agencies, leaving thousands of workers furloughed and critical services on pause. As The Advocate has reported, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Department of Health and Human Services have lost entire divisions, including those serving LGBTQ+ people, women, and youth. And programs that once tracked infectious diseases and supported LGBTQ+ health equity have been shuttered. 

While real people lose services, Republican leadership has largely vacated Washington, a vanishing act that McBride and Lieu’s satire captures perfectly.