House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) apparently participated in a longstanding Democratic tradition Friday, threatening violence to achieve a political aim.
During a Friday press conference with New York Rep. Yvette Clarke (D), Jeffries complained about his Democrat-run state’s high cost of living, President Donald Trump’s attempted federal funding freeze, and the proposed tax cuts in the so-called “extreme MAGA Republican agenda.”
Jeffries, who stated in April that “threatening political violence is not a sign of strength” but rather an “indication of weakness and insecurity” and noted in September that “political violence has no place in a democratic society,” told reporters that when it comes to the Trump agenda, “We are going to fight it legislatively, we are going to fight it in the courts, and we’re going to fight it in the streets.”
The House minority leader was met with immediate backlash over his remarks.
‘Will Democrats and the media denounce this incitement of violence?’
The White House issued a statement asking whether Jeffries will “apologize for this disgusting threat? Or will he double down on the same calls for violence that have plagued the country for years?”
Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), the GOP majority whip, said Jeffries “should promptly apologize for his use of inflammatory and extreme rhetoric. President Trump and the Republicans are focused on uniting the country; Jeffries needs to stop trying to divide it.”
The X account for the Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee wrote, “Will Democrats and the media denounce this incitement of violence?”
Christie Stephenson, a spokeswoman for Jeffries, suggested on X that Republicans were projecting and that when he called for fighting on the streets, the Democratic leader meant “nonviolent protest.”
Stephenson told Fox News Digital, “The notion that Leader Jeffries supports violence is laughable. Republicans are the party that pardons violent felons who assault police officers. Democrats are the party of John Lewis and the right to petition the government peacefully.”
This is hardly the first time a Democrat has issued an apparent call to violence only to later suggest they meant something entirely different.
When speaking at a gala for non-straight youth in 2017, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) said, “I will go and take out Trump tonight.”
In 2018, Waters told radicals outside the Wilshire Federal Building to harass officials in the Trump administration, stating, “Let’s make sure we show up wherever we have to show up. And if you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out, and you create a crowd. And you push back on them. And you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.”
‘Those in power who incite violence should be held accountable.’
Years later, during former police officer Derek Chauvin’s murder trial, Waters gave marching orders to prospective rioters just in case Chauvin was found not guilty in the death of George Floyd.
“Well, we got to stay on the street,” said Waters. “And we’ve got to get more active. You’ve got to get more confrontation. You got to make sure that they know we mean business.”
In 2018, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) told activists to “go to the Hill today. Get up and, please, get up in the face of some congresspeople.”
When discussing the policy of separating minors from adults when dealing with illegal aliens at the border, California Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D) stated that same year, “I just don’t even know why there aren’t uprisings all over the country, and maybe there will be when people realize that this is a policy that they defend. It’s a horrible thing, and I don’t see any prospect for legislation here.”
In 2020, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) threatened U.S. Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh outside the high court, saying, “You have released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.”
Jeffries noted in 2020 that “those in power who incite violence should be held accountable to the full extent of the law.”
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