Overview

• House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ planned 24-hour broadcast ended after roughly 11½ hours during the first day of the partial shutdown.
• Real-time YouTube viewership fell to just a few dozen at points—reported as low as 36—with Politico noting a platform peak of around 1,000.
• Jeffries’ team countered low live counts by claiming more than 60,000 total views when aggregating across platforms and said clips continued to gain traction.
• The stream was marred by execution issues, including a host misnaming Rep. Luz Rivas, a guest cut off by a “We will return shortly” glitch, and members filling time by sampling candy.
• Republicans and the White House mocked the performance as rival feeds drew far larger live audiences, with a White House stream topping 100,000 and a Bernie Sanders-led Senate stream exceeding 90,000.