Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) set the House on fire over the weekend with a mic-dropping speech that took the alphabet to another level.
Shortly after Kevin McCarthy finally gained enough votes for House Speaker after the 15th try, the Democratic Minority Leader
wanted to peacefully but passionately transfer power before taking his seat.Taking his time at the dais, Jeffries praised former House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, who made history as the first female speaker in U.S. history, from 2007 to 2011 and again in 2019, calling her “a no-nonsense negotiator.”
With a 15-minute speech, Jeffries wanted to detail the differences between the battling political parties.
“I want to make clear that we extend and intend to try to find common ground whenever and wherever possible on behalf of the American people,” The Insider reported
.“Not as Democrats, not as Republicans, not as Independents, but as Americans”.
Then, cleverly from A to Z, the Brooklyn native told House colleagues exactly how Democrats would do that. He took viewers back to school with references like “American values over autocracy, benevolence over bigotry”, and “the Constitution over the cult.”
Then he got a little messy, taking the GOP to task with “maturity over Mar-a-Lago” – a slight at Donald Trump – “quality of life issues over QAnon,” and most importantly, “reason over racism.”
Having everyone questioning their vocabulary capabilities, the New York 8th District representative closed with “zealous representation over zero-sum confrontation,” before making a vow on behalf of fellow Democrats to “always do the right thing by the American people,” as reported by CNN.
His speech was met with thunderous applause across the floor.
Jeffries definitely set the tone for McCarthy, who was slated to make his speech after. However, the newly-elected House Speaker’s speech was the exact opposite. The California representative thanked former president Donald J. Trump before addressing Jeffries saying, “There will be times we will agree and many times we will differ.”
“I promise that our debates will be passionate, but never personal,” he added.