Hakeem Jeffries gave the speech defending democracy that Kevin McCarthy should have—but won’t.

Jeffries defends democracy while McCarthy praises the treasonous Donald Trump

The most memorable moment of the Speaker's fight was not when Kevin McCarthy finally prevailed on the 15th ballot, thus, ending the longest fight for House Speaker in 164 years. Rather, what was far more memorable and important was the speech that followed by House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries moments before he handed the speaker’s gavel to McCarthy, representing the peaceful transfer of power.  And not just for Jeffries’ remarkable use of a literary device where he began each line consecutively with the letters A to Z---which was a big part of why the speech went viral.

No, the reason Jeffries’ speech where he passionately defended democracy and compassion over fascism and hate was so striking was because it should have been the one the new Speaker of the House delivered.  Instead, McCarthy delivered a partisan speech where he vowed that the House GOP’s “first bill will repeal funding for 87,000 new IRS agents” which was followed by McCarthy standing in halls of Congress moments later praising Donald Trump—the man the Jan 6 committee’s report concluded was “the central cause of January 6th” attack.

Jeffries has consistently lived up to his first name “Hakeem”—which  translates from Arabic into a “wise” or “learned” person who is a “fountain of deep knowledge.”  (Jeffries is Baptist, but as a Muslim I wish he were Muslim!) His speech in the early hours of Saturday was the most recent example of this. 

The first Black leader of any major party told the House chamber, “We believe that in America our diversity is a strength, it is not a weakness.”  Jeffries also offered "our hand of partnership" to the Republicans, stating, "We extend, and intend, to try and find common ground, whenever and wherever possible on behalf of the American people." Yet Jeffries rightly vowed Democrats will “never compromise our principles," which was then followed by the most impressive part of the speech as he listed each principle literally from A to Z, following in order the 26 letters of the alphabet.

He began by making it clear Democrats reject so much that has come to define Trumpism: “House Democrats will always put American values over autocracy, benevolence over bigotry,  the Constitution over the cult, democracy over demagogues…freedom over fascism, governing over gaslighting, hopefulness over hatred…”

Later in this poetic passage when the Democratic leader reached the letter “m,” jeers could be heard in the House chamber (presumably by Republicans) when he stated: “maturity over Mar-a-Lago.” Jefferies continued on with alphabetical recitation of what Democrats will defend and reject: “quality of life issues over QAnon, reason over racism, substance over slander, triumph over tyranny, understanding over ugliness, voting rights over voter suppression.”

He even sent people googling the definition of a word when he reached the letter “x” and stated, “xenial over xenophobia.” (“Xenial” means in this context, “warm, welcoming, and hospitable.”)

The newly sworn in Democratic leader brought this passage to a close with the line “zealous representation over zero-sum confrontation,” shortly thereafter ending his speech vowing Democrats will “always do the right thing by the American people.”

But these are the very words that should have been delivered by Speaker McCarthy, making it clear he denounces autocracy, fascism and the grave threats still facing our democracy posed by Trump and the MAGA wing of the party. It’s not that McCarthy doesn’t grasp these threats. This is the same McCarthy who only a week after the Jan 6 attack, took to the floor of the House proclaiming without any ambiguity about Trump: “The President bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob rioters.” McCarthy added, “He should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding.”

But fast forward to the minutes after leaving the House having been elected Speaker-- and still in essence on the two year anniversary of Jan 6 attack--with McCarthy now praising the man who attempted a coup and was the “central cause” of the Jan 6 attack on the very chamber McCarthy will now lead. It was there McCarthy stated, “I do want to especially thank President Trump. I don’t think you should doubt–anybody should doubt his influence,” adding, “He was with me from the beginning…  So, thank you, President Trump.”

“Thank you” to the man who almost ended our democratic Republic to remain in power because he refused to accept losing?!! That’s not what a Speaker of the House should ever be saying!

McCarthy’s speech after receiving the gavel did include some nice moments such as when he said to Jeffries: “There will be times we will agree and many times we will differ. I promise that our debates will be passionate, but never personal.” McCarthy also closed his speech with these commendable lines: "Our nation is worth fighting for…Our future is worth fighting for."

But given McCarthy’s track record of flip flipping on key issues like standing up to Trump for his role in the Jan 6 attack to his silence in the face of his fellow Republicans own misconduct as we saw recently with the tsunami of lies by then GOP Rep-elect George Santos who McCarthy desperately needed on his side to become Speaker, these are simply words without any meaning.  

Jeffries’s speech was an unapologetic defense of American values and our democratic Republic. If only we had a Speaker who had the courage to do the same. Instead, we have a Speaker who has put his personal ambitions above protecting our nation. And nothing sums up today’s GOP more accurately than McCarthy.

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Watch the “A to Z” portion of Hakeem Jeffries’ speech here:

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Wanted to let everyone know that during the week I’ll be posting on my Substack page- but not emailing – media clips from my SiriusXM show that may be of interest. For example, I posted over past two days clips of my interviews of MSNBC legal analyst/former prosecutor Glenn Kirschner plus activist Mary Trump. Hope you periodically check out the my substack page during the week for updates that may be of interest. And PLEASE do share the clips and this newsletter if you enjoy them!
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