Rep. Robert Garcia’s Republican colleagues handed him a blue balloon and asked him to stay in the storm drain after the California Democrat compared himself to Pennywise and climbed in to demonstrate, sources have confirmed.
“Take the blue one and stay put,” a Republican called down.
“You can have a red one when you’ve lowered something besides yourself.”
The first blue balloon popped during a focus group when a woman asked whether he’d lowered her grocery bill.
Staffers called it a messaging problem and brought out a second balloon, which popped when she asked again.
By noon, the campaign had put tiny shoes on the storm drain, tied on a third blue balloon, and declared it a field office.
A constituent who leaned down to ask about his taxes heard a bicycle horn, then felt a cold hand slip a fundraising envelope into his coat pocket.
Pennywise briefly appeared at a press conference to ask Garcia to stop using his likeness.
The clown said he’d spent centuries building a reputation as a monster and was already getting calls from people demanding to know why he’d joined Congress.
As of press time, Garcia’s blue balloon had floated across the aisle, where a Republican tied it to the woman’s grocery receipt and watched it drag the entire House chamber into the sewer.
