The White House Changeed Outgoing Message on Comment Line to Blame Democrats?

https://www.snopes.com/white-house-comment-line-trump/#.WmTkdNAMDOE.facebook

CLAIM

The White House updated the voice message on the automated telephone comments line to blame Democrats for a government shutdown.

RATING : TRUE

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The Republican-controlled White House went so far as to change the outgoing message on the White House telephone comment line (202-456-1111) to an unprecedented message blaming Democrats:

Thank you for calling the White House. Unfortunately, we cannot answer your call today, because Congressional Democrats are holding government funding, including funding for our troops and other national security priorities, hostage to an unrelated immigration debate. Due to this obstruction, the government is shut down. In the meantime, you can leave a comment for the president at www.whitehouse.gov/contact. We look forward to taking your calls as soon as the government reopens.

The existence of the message was confirmed by various reporters:

We called and were able to confirm for ourselves that this was indeed the White House’s outgoing telephone message on 20 January 2018.

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