This guy is a member of House Democratic leadership, who's widely expected to climb the power ladder even further once the party's ancient crop of leaders starts to stand aside.
He wrung his hands about President Trump's attacks on the federal judiciary during the last administration, and he's held up SCOTUS rulings as final and sacrosanct in the not-so-distant past:
The Supreme Court has ruled.
— Hakeem Jeffries (@RepJeffries) July 9, 2020
America is not a monarchy.
Trump is not a King.
There is no doctrine of absolute immunity from Congressional subpoenas.
The American people WILL get to see the President’s tax returns one way or the other.
What's this selfless torch-carrier for Democracy, Norms and Institutions up to these days? Ah:
The Supreme Court majority has zero legitimacy.
— Hakeem Jeffries (@RepJeffries) February 8, 2022
Ghosts of the confederacy are alive and well.
It seems he's having a dangerous public tantrum about SCOTUS' ruling on a redistricting dispute – a blow to Democrats in a season of generally favorable outcomes on this front for the national ruling party. Remember, Democrats hate gerrymandering (except when they get to use it), just like they hate money in politics (except for their side's money), just like they hate the racist filibuster, etc. They believe in nothing beyond their own power, and their "principles" and "values" are accordingly flexible and adaptable. This is also true of many Republicans, of course, but Republicans haven't made a big show of being norms-protecting, institutions-revering, democracy guardians over the last five years, to rapturous media approbation. Meanwhile, Jeffries is also out there hacking it up, crediting Joe Biden's leadership for Democrats' sudden 180 on mask mandates, the reality of which we analyzed earlier today. He kept a straight face:
.@RepJeffries credits Biden for states dropping mask mandates: "That’s because under President Biden's leadership, a public health infrastructure was put into place ... to ensure that we can do everything possible to crush the virus, and that is what has been happening” pic.twitter.com/FDjJrjA7aB
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) February 8, 2022
Shades of New York (his home state) pretending that its useless mask requirement is responsible for the subsequent crash in cases. It seems as though the next generation of Democratic leadership will be just as cartoonishly unserious as the current one – just even more left-wing. I'll leave you with another wrinkle in the unfolding embarrassment of Stacey Abrams, another "rising star" in Democratic politics (whose abiding respect for our democracy has entailed lying about elections and engaging in large-scale race-baiting deceit):
So she basically did not wear a mask the whole time while the low-risk kids were stuck with no choice… https://t.co/9fykTZRONV
— AG (@AGHamilton29) February 8, 2022
I'm increasingly convinced that Abrams' photo-op debacle is so devastating that it had an impact on this week's deluge of Democratic reversals on mask mandates. Something to be grateful for, I suppose.