House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) appears to have no plans on lowering the temperature. A clip has circulated of the top Democrat speaking at a press conference on Friday morning and calling on people to "fight it in the streets," speaking of President Donald Trump's legislative agenda. The comments quickly became a trend over X.
"We are going to fight it," Jeffries stressed at one point. "We are going to fight it legislatively, we're going to fight it in the courts, and we're going to fight it in the streets."
WATCH: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries calls for violence as he says people must "fight" President Trump's agenda "in the streets." pic.twitter.com/ZEEkhtIGbZ
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) January 31, 2025
Not long after the remarks were trending, the White House Office of Communications send out a release, "Will House Minority Leader Jeffries Apologize to the American People?"
As the release read in part, "Will Minority Leader Jeffries apologize for this disgusting threat? Or will he double down on the same calls for violence that have plagued the country for years?"
Many chiming in, including but not limited to those who have shared the Rapid Response 47 clip, have called out Jeffries, with Alex Bruesewitz tagging Jeffries and Robby Starbuck slamming "Extremely irresponsible language."
While President Trump is diligently working every day to unite our nation through SUCCESS, Hakeem Jeffries and his fellow Democrats are trying to tear our country apart with their dangerous and extreme rhetoric.
— Alex Bruesewitz 🇺🇸 (@alexbruesewitz) January 31, 2025
Shameful behavior, @hakeemjeffries. https://t.co/3XsR3O6MY8
Dem leader Hakeem Jeffries is calling for people to fight "in the streets" against the Trump agenda. Extremely irresponsible language. This shows you how desperate the Democrats are getting.
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) January 31, 2025
pic.twitter.com/7UVBZjNW7l
As it turns out, Jeffries made similar remarks just earlier this week. The Hill reported about similar remarks that took place during Democrats' "emergency" meeting on Wednesday, though this one took place over Zoom. The takeaway is not only that Jeffries is making such remarks, but that his fellow Democrats wholeheartedly agree with him.
As the report mentioned [emphasis added]:
House Democrats launched a multilateral effort Wednesday to combat the flood of executive actions from President Trump, vowing to punch back through legislation, lawsuits and a blitz of counter-messaging.
In a virtual meeting of the House Democratic Caucus — conducted on Zoom because the House is in recess — party leaders and Democratic committee heads laid out the contours of their strategy, which will lean heavily on efforts to inform voters of the real-world effects of Trump’s actions.
It was an “emergency” discussion sparked by the Trump administration’s move — since rescinded — to freeze trillions of dollars for federal grants and loans. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) told his troops to pursue all avenues of opposition — and take that fight to the streets, according to several Democrats who participated in the meeting.
“I don’t want to speak for the leader,” Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) said afterward, “but it was a broad call for action — and a vigorous one.”
“House Democrats are now fully engaged. The bell has rung. I think we see this for the constitutional test that it is, and we’re going to be aggressively pushing back,” echoed Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.).
“Leader Jeffries described it as a legal fight, a legislative fight and a street fight. And I couldn’t put it better.”
...
“Our votes are going to be needed at a whole bunch of key moments, starting just weeks from now,” Huffman said. “So we’re going to leverage those moments, we’re going to leverage the appropriations process, and we’re going to use whatever bully pulpits we have to awaken the American people to what’s going on here.”
Jeffries is hardly a stranger to irresponsible language. Just earlier this month, when handing the gavel off to newly reelected Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), he claimed that "there are no election deniers on our side of the aisle." Jeffries himself claimed that Trump was not a "legitimate president" after he was elected to his first term in 2016. Plenty of other Democrats have also engaged in election denialism with the 2016 election, and former Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D-VA), as DNC chairman, was particularly vocal in engaging in election denialism about the 2000 election, even going into the 2004 election.
Democrats overall have engaged in irresponsible and downright dangerous language, even and including when it comes to multiple assassination attempts against Trump as the Republican nominee, by referring to him as a supposed threat to democracy.
Jeffries isn't the only top Democrat to engage in such rhetoric, as Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has been a repeat offender, though she's hardly the only one. Many others have spoken about fights going on "in the streets" as well.
The “mostly” peaceful loving left is all about violence. pic.twitter.com/i1kD4SHDiZ
— Clyp Keeper (@DGrayTexas45) January 31, 2025
Although the above clip includes many members, there's still many more not included. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), when condemning the possibility of spending cuts amidst the fight between the White House and then Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) in May 2023, claimed that there would be "huge backlash... in the streets."
"There will be a huge backlash" not just among the "entire House, you know, Democratic Caucus," especially progressives, but "in the streets," she shared.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal: There will be "a huge backlash...in the streets" if the White House agrees to spending cuts. pic.twitter.com/W0kgsN0EAz
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) May 23, 2023
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