Reminds me of the stunt Issa and Cunningham tried in the House chamber years ago. Members are allowed to make "speeches" from the House dais after adjournment to allow them to have material for videos to show the folks back home how hard they were working. They challenged the other members to take action on some point - at a time when there were no other members present. The next time they tried that, the video director panned across the empty chamber.
I worked for the Congress when cspan first began coverage inside the House chamber. The understanding between the parties was that cameras would always be fixed on the person speaking at all times, other than a fixed wide shot of the chamber facing the dais, without audio, during roll calls and allotted time for voting.
This was standard and apolitical. Until.
The first wave of malignant hypocritical so-called religious puritanical asshole Republicans were elected, led by thrice married Gingrich, spouting calls for Christian values taught in public schools, public taxes to subsidize private religious schools, banning abortion, ad infinitum.
There were about a dozen of them. They’d use the morning two-minute speeches to drone on about each of these causes, in turn, each session. The chamber was slowly filling as members arrived following the bells calling for quorums and voting. A slick but harmless form of trickery.
It was the post session one hour speeches that broke the bipartisan harmony of decorum.
These nincompoops would get up at the podium, knowing the camera would only show them in frame, while they would ramble on about the sanctity of marriage, stronger laws on pedephelia, ban abortions, etc.
Of course many of these hypocrites were later exposed as paying for their mistresses’ abortions, diddling their wrestling students as former high school coaches, as infinitum. Good old Bob Dornan was among these assholes. Duncan Hunter Sr, and good old Duke Cunningham, convicted felon for millions in bribes.
But after a while, they would up their histrionics by turning to look at various portions of the chamber, pointing at perceived opposing members from the other side of the aisle and generally give the impression they had a packed house hanging on their every word of dripping personal hypocrisy.
Watching this in the chamber in person was one of the benefits we’d get as employees. It was truly pathetic to see firsthand. Every one of the 600 plus seats were empty, but for the 2-3 other speakers waiting to give their own empty chamber diatribe.
Tip O’Neill, having been Speaker and the main signatory in this new camera era, correctly noted that the fixed camera rule was for the purpose of accurately reflecting the business of the House, and letting these fools pretend the chamber was filled when it was actually empty was a fraud conducted by these Gingrich dopes.
So Tip ordered the camera director to pan the empty chamber while a speaker was wildly gesticulating his hysterical rankings. Healthly bedlam ensued. It was glorious.