A clash erupted over the long-delayed swearing-in of a Democratic congresswoman-elect who won a special election nearly two months ago to replace her late father in the House of Representatives.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is expected to administer the oath of office for Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ) on Wednesday, after the House returns to action for the first time since mid-September to consider a plan to end a record government shutdown, and Democratic strategist Antjuan Seawright told "CNN This Morning" that the delay was unacceptable.

"When Speaker Johnson made that comment, he left out one caveat," Seawright said. "[A previous delayed oath] was the request of the incoming member to delay the swearing in for one reason or another, but for 800,000 people in Arizona went without representation after a decisive victory in that race, which I think is not only unconstitutional, it's a matter of political malpractice. After a 54-day paid taxpayer vacation. Republicans are now finally back to work. But in the midst of all that, he could have easily sworn her in to allow 800,000 Arizonans to have representation – Democrat, Republican, independent, or those who do not, who did not even participate."

Conservative commentator Carrie Sheffield took exception to Seawright's assessment of the situation.

"With all respect, you're trying to gaslight Republicans for the shutdown when it was Democrats who were doing it," Sheffield said. "So I'm not really buying that because Republicans, when [former President Joe] Biden was in office, they voted 13 times to give him a clean [continuing resolution]. The Golden Rule is that you do unto others as you want them to do unto you, and unfortunately, the Democrats in the Senate were the ones who really did this shutdown. So they have themselves to blame for keeping this congresswoman out of office. It's not illegal. She's wrong about that, because obviously there is precedent of this happening and there was no legal ramifications against Nancy Pelosi at that time."

Seawright wasn't persuaded by her explanation.

"Well, again, Nancy Pelosi was asked to delay the swearing in, and Johnson could have sworn her in in the midst of it, in the midst of the government shutdown," he said.

"She said it was illegal," Sheffield interjected. "That's an important thing to accuse the speaker of the House of illegal criminal [conduct]."

"Well, there were lawsuits filed," Seawright fired back. "They are going to answer that question. There were lawsuits filed by the Arizona attorney general that the courts will ultimately decide whether it's legal or not. But the fact is, in the midst of the government shutdown, he could have sworn her in if he wanted to."

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