Who said it, Patriots or White House?

A GOP lawmaker is using the New England Patriots and “Deflate-gate” to poke at President Obama and the White House with a new quiz.

Rep. Todd Young (R-Ind.), whose Indianapolis Colts were defeated by the Patriots, on Friday posted a quiz on his official website that asks visitors who said it: the White House or New England coach Bill Belichick.

{mosads}Young notes that the answers by the Patriots about underinflated balls in Sunday’s AFC championship game are very similar to those made by Obama and the White House on various controversies.

“I was shocked to learn of the news reports,” Belichick said Thursday at a press conference, adding he had “no explanation” for why 11 of the 12 footballs used in the first half of his team’s  45-7 win over the Colts were inflated below National Football League requirements. 

“I first learned about it from the same news reports that I think most people learned about this,” Obama said in May 2013, during a press conference about the IRS’s targeting of conservative groups.

Young’s quiz also includes comments made by former White House press secretary Jay Carney on the Veterans Affairs agency as well as the Department of Justice seizing phone records of Associated Press employees. It also highlights quarterback Tom Brady’s insistence he knew nothing about the balls.

“I have questions too. There’s nobody I know that can answer the questions that I have,” Brady said at a lengthy press conference later on Thursday.

Several lawmakers have weighed in on the controversy, dubbed “Deflate-gate,” given a 2007 NFL probe that found the Patriots had videotaped the coaching signals of opposing teams, leading to hefty fines. 

“From the beginning, we knew the Patriots would do anything they could to win,” Sen. Dan Coats (R-Ind.), another Colts fan, told The Hill earlier this week when asked about Sunday’s game. “We’re convinced that the score would have been just exactly the opposite had they not had deflated footballs.”

Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings, whose home-state Baltimore Ravens were defeated by the Patriots the previous week, said the underinflated balls should be investigated but the case shouldn’t keep the Patriots from playing the Seattle Seahawks in the Super Bowl on Feb 1.

Both Nevada senators, Dean Heller (R) and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D), panned the case of the underinflated balls, with Reid chastising the NFL and Heller calling on the league to “restore the credibility of the game before the Super Bowl.”