Hakeem Jeffries, House Democratic Minority Leader, before officially handing McCarthy the Speaker’s gavel, giving the speech of the week:
“We will never compromise our principles, House Democrats will always put American values over autocracy, benevolence over bigotry, the Constitution over the cult, democracy over demagogues, economic opportunity over extremism, freedom over fascism, governing over gaslighting, hopefulness over hatred, inclusion over isolation, justice over judicial overreach, knowledge over kangaroo courts, liberty over limitation, maturity over Mar-a-Lago, normalcy over negativity, opportunity over obstruction, people over politics, quality of life issues over QAnon, reason over racism, substance over slander, triumph over tyranny, understanding over ugliness, voting rights over voter suppression, working families over the well-connected, xenial over xenophobia, ‘Yes we can’ over ‘You can do it,’ and zealous representation over zero-sum confrontation. “We are a gorgeous mosaic of people from throughout the world,” he continued. “As John Lewis would sometimes remind us on this floor, ‘We may have come over on different ships, but we’re all in the same boat now.' We are white, we are black, we are Latino, we are Asian, we are Native American, we are Christian, we are Jewish, we are Muslim, we are Hindu, we are religious, we are secular. We are gay, we are straight, we are young, we are older, we are women, we are men, we are citizens, we are dreamers. Out of many, we are one. That’s what makes America a great country. And no matter what kind of haters are trying to divide us, we’re not going to let anyone take that away from us. Not now. Not ever.” What a way to start his tenure as Minority Leader, with that kind of speech. Wouldn’t a Buttigieg/Jeffries, or a Jeffries/Buttigieg team be a great combo? Common sense, take no prisoners, truth to power? |
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